Today's the day for PS5 fans, with the hugely popular console hitting shelves across the US (UK gamers have another agonising week to wait). Whether you've already bagged your pre-order or are hoping to get your PS5 online today, you could soon be experiencing the next generation of gaming from your living room. But the console you'll be playing on could have looked very different.
The PlayStation 5 made quite the splash when its design was revealed back in June, with no shortage of opinions shared online about its gargantuan shape. And now, Sony's senior art director has revealed the inspiration and design process behind the console – along with some surprising tidbits about it could have looked.
Think the PS5 is big? Wait till you hear how it could have looked (Image credit: Sony)
Perhaps the most shocking revelation is that the PS5 was originally even bigger. "When I started drawing, it was much larger," Yujin Morisawa told the Washington Post. With the current console's unwieldily shape immediately turning heads, it's hard to imagine it being any bigger. But Morisawa says he always knew it was going to be enormous, thanks to the sheer amount of power required.
Morisawa was told to shrink the design down from the initial drawing, with the engineering team keen to make it much smaller. And while the current design is still huge, Morisawa thinks the team managed to find the perfect size. "If I made it thinner, there would be less air flow to it. It would disturb the player while they are playing."
But while the PS5's design was the subject of many a meme after its unveiling, Morisawa is thankfully able to see the funny side – and even offer some design wisdom on the subject. "When you design something," he says, "you want to make it feel comfortable. Sometimes it looks like a plant or some animal or some object. I think that’s more comfortable than something that’s weird, or something that they’ve never seen before."
Spot the symbols (Image credit: Sony)
And Morisawa has even revealed a surprising design easter egg for fans. It seems the texture of the PS5's DualSense controller (which we weren't initially enamoured by) is, on close inspection (above), comprised of lots of tiny PlayStation symbols: squares, circles, triangles and crosses.
While the PS5's design has certainly made an impression, it's the console's gaming prowess that will really matter to fans – and some lucky gamers will soon be able to see for themselves just how powerful it is. If you fancy your chances at getting hold of the PS5 on launch, check out the best deals below.
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Daniel John is Design Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of design, branding and lifestyle tech, and has covered several industry events including Milan Design Week, OFFF Barcelona and Adobe Max in Los Angeles.
