The PlayStation 5’s senior art director has revealed that the console’s large size was almost larger in its initial designs.
The official teardown video states the console is 10.4cm wide, 39cm high, and 26cm deep- admittedly taller than the PlayStation 4. The console’s large size, combined with the video’s thumbnail showing it seemingly equal or larger than Yasuhiro Ootori’s torso (Vice President, Mechanical Design Dept., Hardware Design Division), led to jokes and memes on social media [1, 2, 3, 4].
In an interview with The Washington Post, Senior Art Director Yujin Morisawa revealed that the initial designs proposed for the console were even larger at one stage- larger than what the engineering department needed.
“I didn’t know what to expect in the beginning. I knew it was going to be larger because I know how much power there was going to be, so I knew how much air flow you would need and how much space for a heat sink. In the beginning, 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.”
Morisawa also described his nerves when revealing the console for the first time. Despite the memes and jokes comparing it to routers, humidifiers, and more; he was actually encouraged by them.
“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. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I think it’s good energy.”
The console’s design continued, with Morisawa attempting to design something that would maximize internal size and air flow.
Further, Morisawa stated a divisive reaction is what he wants to achieve all the time. “If you look at something really new, you react and say ‘what is it?’ You don’t know how to react to it. When you look closer, you actually see some familiar structure to it. You kind of understand afterwards.”
Morisawa also described his inspirations for the PlayStation 5’s design. This included trying to “sculpt the invisible mass in between the player and the mechanical engineering. That’s how I describe it. There’s something in between hardware and the player, and that should be expressed.”
Other inspirations included the term “five dimensions,” how you would live in a parallel world or jumping around in time or space. He also wanted to make it “universal”– hence the face buttons on the DualSense controller no longer being colored.
Morisawa also told the designers that everything should be designed; including texture, color, and smaller details. “We have to spend time on it.” This resulted in the small Easter egg of the DualSense controller’s grips having tiny PlayStation button symbols.
“Texture should be functional in a way. For the controller, it acts as a grip. For the [console], it gives you a different lighting effect to the form of the design. The shapes represent users’ energy or emotion. Think about a microorganism gathering to build a larger design. I wanted to say that the player’s energy and power and emotion are building to make this form. That’s how I came up with this texture.”
Finally, Morisawa hinted that there may be other hidden details.
The PlayStation 5 will launch November 12th in the US, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea. For the rest of the world, it will launch November 19th. The PlayStation 5 will cost $499.99 USD, while the Digital Edition will cost $399.99 USD.
Image: PlayStation
