Sony Planned To Make The PlayStation 5 Even Bigger At First

If you've been reading some of the PlayStation 5 reviews out there, you've probably heard the somewhat common criticism – or at least observation – that the PlayStation 5 is a big console. While certainly not a dealbreaker for those who have been looking forward to the PlayStation 5, those reviews are essentially telling us to clear some space on the television stand, because the PS5 is going to take up a lot of it. As it turns out, the PlayStation 5 that's releasing later this week is actually smaller than its preliminary designs.

So says Sony senior art director Yujin Morisawa, who designed the PlayStation 5, in a new interview with The Washington Post. In that interview, Morisawa says that his initial designs for the console were a lot larger than the final console's design, owing to the fact that he didn't know what to expect aside from knowing that the console needed more space for cooling and components.

"I didn't know what to expect in the beginning," Morisawa said. "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."

Morisawa went on to say that even though the PlayStation 5 is still a big console, it's "the perfect size right now." If it were any smaller, airflow would be an issue, which of course means that fans would have to blow faster and louder, and no one wants that. As for the comparisons gamers made between the PS5 and other household products – particularly routers – when the console was first revealed, Morisawa says that he thinks "it's a good thing," noting that he isn't offended by such comparisons.

"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," Morisawa said.

While there isn't much revealed about the PlayStation 5 in this interview, it does offer some interesting information about the console's design process, so be sure to give it a read if you have a few minutes this morning. The PlayStation 5 launches in North America on Thursday, November 12th.