Sony need to take a leaf out of Microsoft's design philosophy: Clean. Elegant. Practical. The One S (especially in white) and One X are the best looking consoles for 20+ years. In design not standing out can be better than being distinctive. I doubt many people buy consoles solely based on how they look.
Yes, I always preferred my consoles to be unobtrusive (says the person that bought the X360-S Reach Edition
). Look nice without making you stare at it because it looks odd.
IMO,
- PS2 fit that the original Xbox didn't
- X360 was a bit odd but far less so than the fugly PS3.
- XBO was really quite elegant in a don't stand out sort of way, while the parallelogram nature of the PS4 just struck me the wrong way.
Granted, all of this is down to personal preferences (and there's always exceptions like my getting the Reach designed X360-S). I also get why some people really dig consoles that stand out and demand that you look at them.
And perhaps it's because I'm a PC gamer, but I found the Xbox Series X tower to be the best looking console I've ever seen. Then again, maybe being a gamer has nothing to do with it. My significant other hates gaming, but found the Xbox Series X looks good enough to qualify being put in out living room without having to hide it.
High praise?
It's certainly the first time she didn't demand that any potential console be completely hidden from view (the living room HT cabinet has opaque glass doors).
Although she did demand that if it was in sight, the lit Xbox logo would have to be taped over and facing the wall.
Anyway, I do hope the PS5 devkit isn't indicative of what the actual retail unit would look like. While I don't plan on getting in on the next console generation, if I did, it'd be nice not to have that sort of an eye sore in the living room...even hidden away where I can't see it.
But since I don't plan on getting either console, it's likely a moot point for me anyway.
Regards,
SB