After months of hearing about system specs and rumors, Sony finally pulled the wraps off of their upcoming next-gen machine, the PlayStation 5. The console unsurprisingly takes after the DualSense controller’s two-tone color scheme, with shades of black and white contrasting against each other to produce what looks like a deformed ice cream sandwich.
Sony’s Jim Ryan later offered some insight regarding the visual design philosophy of Sony’s next box. In an interview with CNET, Ryan stated that they wanted to create something that was “bold,” “daring,” and “something for the 2020s.” Ryan seemed to imply that the dashing exterior design was meant to reflect the “quantum leap” they hope to make with games and technology over the current generation.
In a separate interview with BBC, Ryan said that the “PlayStation sits in the living area of most homes, and we kind of felt it would be nice to provide a design that would really grace most living areas. That’s what we’ve tried to do. And, you know, we think we’ve been successful in that.”
It’s hard not to see where Ryan is coming from here. The design is certainly unusual and looks like a concept image of what someone thought consoles would look like in the future two decades ago. The downside of a bold design like this, however, is that it has the potential to be divisive.
Many online are turned off by not only the design but the whiteness of it. So the internet wasted no time mocking up an all-black version of the console, and the results are striking. It looks decidedly less futuristic and a lot more subtle. And judging by the responses to the thread, people seem to like it a lot more.
I tried to recolor the new PS5 to black, here’s what came out of it (I took the gamepad from the web btw)
by u/Doombie43 in playstation
All of this, of course, serves as a hilarious contrast to its competitor, the monolithic, monochromatic slab known as the Xbox Series X. Microsoft’s machine was unveiled late last year at The Game Awards and was immediately inducted into memedom as an obelisk that starkly resembled a kitchen appliance.
Jokes aside, the PlayStation 5 will be launching this holiday alongside an all-digital version without a disc drive. Pricing information has yet to be announced.
