The PlayStation 5 could somehow have been even bigger

(Image credit: Future)

published 11 November 2020

With PS5 consoles shipping to homes around the world this week, delivery drivers are going to be doing a lot of heavy lifting. The PlayStation 5 is not just weighty – with boxes reportedly tipping the scales at 4.78kg – its dimensions make it one of the largest consoles ever made, as this comparison shows.

Surprisingly, it could have been bigger still. In an interview with The Washington Post, PlayStation’s Senior Art Director Yujin Morisawa revealed that the final design is a bit smaller than his original plan.

“In the beginning, when I started drawing, it was much larger even though I didn’t know what engineering was going to do,” Morisawa said, explaining that he knew the power draw would require something larger than previous generations. “It’s kind of funny that engineering actually told me it’s too big. So, I actually had to shrink it down a little bit from the first drawing.

“We wanted to get it much smaller, so it’s the perfect size right now. If I made it thinner, there would be less air flow to it. It would disturb the player while they are playing. Form-factor wise, I drew a perfect line around it and tried [to] hit the perfect size.”

Of course, past form suggests that this won’t be the final look of the PS5. Every past generation of PlayStation has seen a smaller revision at some point along the road, between three and six years after launch. It would be surprising if the PS5 didn’t follow suit, eventually.

But for now, this is the design that Morisawa is hoping will become iconic as it finds its way underneath TVs around the world. And he isn’t hurt by the playful comparisons to routers and humidifiers, either.

“I think it’s a good thing,” he said. “When you design something, 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. I think there’s a balance there.

“I think it’s funny, though. I’m not offended or anything. I really like what people are playing with.”

The PS5 is designed to work vertically or horizontally, so which does the Senior Art Director think is correct? “If I could get one, personally, I would go for both,” he said, hedging his bets a little. “I designed both [the standard and digital editions], so I would buy both and place one vertically and one horizontally.”

You can read the full interview at The Washington Post.

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