The PS5 Reveal Left Out One Huge Detail
During yesterday's Future of Gaming livestream event, PlayStation fans finally got a chance to see the new generation of console gaming in action. In addition to a look at multiple new titles, however — including Horizon Forbidden West and Spider-Man: Miles Morales – we also got a chance to finally see what the PlayStation 5 actually looks like.
All in all, the PlayStation 5 is a pretty slick machine, but it definitely looks different from anything Sony has released in the past. Aside from the fact that it's a two-tone, black-and-white console, it's also less blocky than previous console designs. It also has multiple curved edges that give it a rather futuristic look. Sure, some folks on Twitter have quipped that it looks like a router with some white bits slapped onto the outside of it, but for the most part, people seem to be into it.
However, there's one aspect of the PlayStation 5 design that some people may not be picking up on right away. Has anyone else noticed that this thing is kind of huge?
While this doesn't appear to be something that people caught immediately, folks are starting to slowly bring it up. Some fans have started to notice that the PlayStation 5 looks positively massive when compared to previous Sony consoles. On Twitter, multiple people have created graphics to illustrate this very point, and the results are pretty interesting.
oooh he a big big boi pic.twitter.com/gwI1yBT093
— Callum Uwunderwood (@DevRelCallum) June 12, 2020
As you can see in the above graphic, this user has pointed out the PlayStation 5's disc drive and USB ports to show that they are relatively the same width and spacing as previous consoles. With that in mind, it becomes abundantly clear that the PlayStation 5 towers over the other systems from Sony.
Not only that, but when placed next to previous Microsoft consoles and the upcoming Xbox Series X, the PlayStation 5 is still the biggest dog in the yard. As can be seen in the graphic, which places the PlayStation 5 in a lineup among both Sony and Microsoft consoles, nothing else even comes close to the PS5's height. When shown on the same scale as other consoles, the differences in height are staggering. It also has quite a bit of width to it as well, which can be seen when it is shown next to the original chunky PlayStation 3 model.
What's interesting to note is the size of the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition. The Digital Edition doesn't have a disc drive, yet it doesn't appear to be significantly smaller than the standard version of the console. In fact, the disc drive appears to only take up a small portion of the lower right-hand side of the console (when it's positioned standing up). That seems to suggest that there's something much more significant taking up space inside the console.
In the past, we've heard that the PlayStation 5 has proven to be rather costly for Sony to produce, simply due to the kinds of materials being used for it. The flash memory in the PS5 is of a higher quality than previous console generations, but that's not all. The console's new custom cooling system costs a few dollars more to make than the industry standard, which also probably adds to the size of the console.
Then again, even without the fancy new cooling system, we have seen in the past that building a larger console allows for safer heat dissipation within the system. That was part of the reasoning behind the Xbox One being so much heftier than the Xbox 360. After the 360 ran into so many overheating issues, Microsoft made the decision to go with a chunkier console rather than run the risk of repeating history. This allowed Microsoft to put a large cooling fan in the system and allow enough space inside the console for proper airflow.
Speaking of repeating history, one fan who has noticed the size of the PlayStation 5 was reminded of the kinds of jokes people used to make about the original Xbox model. This person reposted a series of memes mocking how big the Xbox was, saying that we should start making similar memes regarding the PlayStation 5.
everyone mocked the size of the xbox series x but the ps5 is actually way bigger? now we need to remake all those XBOX HUEG memes from like 2004 but with the ps5 instead pic.twitter.com/eCGkiCmkvv
— nikki (@stellamelos) June 12, 2020
It remains to be seen how the PlayStation 5 compares to other consoles when laid on its side, but we've got to imagine that it still takes up quite a bit of room. It's pretty wild to see how drastically different the new console is from its predecessors in the PlayStation line. From color scheme to overall body shape, it looks as though Sony wanted to set the PlayStation 5 apart in a big way (no pun intended).
It seems that Mark Cerny wasn't kidding when he said, "we decided to go with a very different direction on PlayStation 5."