In an era where the design philosophy that smaller is better generally prevails, it is surprising to many gamers how large the PS5 is. But did you know that originally, the PS5 was supposed to be “much larger” than it is? Some comments from senior art director Yujin Morisawa reveal how the design of the console changed from a larger console to a smaller one.
A Much Larger PS5 Was Originally Envisioned
The Washington Post spoke to Morisawa. According to Morisawa, “When I started drawing, it was much larger even though I didn’t know what engineering was going to do. 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 hit the perfect size.”
So, if the relatively large size of the PlayStation 5 annoys you, just think how much larger it actually could have been. Frankly, it sounds like the company probably went the right direction, given the reference to air flow. Hopefully the larger size of this console means that it won’t be as loud as the PlayStation 4, and that it will not be prone to overheating.
When the PS5 releases in a couple days, some quality of life features will be missing. But Sony will hopefully incorporate at least some of them soon. The consoles will ship out in environmentally-friendly packaging without plastic. Find out more about these and other developments in our PlayStation news section. The big day is finally almost here!