PS3 Slim and the Living Room

PS3 Slim

Sony has announced the new PlayStation 3 slim.

Without making any predictions about the sales of the slim, I think the importance of the physical design of game consoles has been vastly underestimated. It seems that console designers, being fans of technology, have tended to assume that their console would naturally be the center- and conversation piece of whatever living room they were placed in. The original PlayStation 3 was probably the worst offender of all time: huge, and with a curved top, signaling that no matter, this had to be the shiny object on top of whatever stack of devices that the consumer might have.

The PS3 slim will fit into more living rooms, but the curved top remains.

In Donald Norman’s 2005 Emotional Design, he makes the strangely prescient remark that, in the future, perhaps there would be video game consoles that by their physical design spoke to different audiences. Well, we have arrived. Now if only Microsoft would make a smaller and less noisy 360.

5 thoughts on “PS3 Slim and the Living Room”

  1. with a flat top it might look too much like a regular computer. i think that the sony people wouldnt like that.
    i think that its sort of funny how much the concealment of devices like this reminds me of the 1950s when everyone want to have cabinet set televisions in super 1940s looking cases. obviously exactly not the same but it is a little strange.

  2. For me it isn’t a problem, what’s important is the performance and the satisfaction you could get from it. Also let’s consider the new price, isn’t tempting to buy one as a present, actually I’m thinking whether to wait for Aion Online or buy this console now.

  3. Perhaps the curved top is to discourage stacking for technical reasons. If something was on top it would inhibit heat dissipation, and in theory the curve means that even if you cram it in somewhere tight there is still surface area on the top that is not right up against something.

    I admit it’s annoying but can see why they make it like that.

  4. I agree, that may very well be the reason. But then that tells you something about their priorities: top performance – check. Fitting into people’s living rooms – not so much.

  5. The only thing i don’t find appealling about the slim is no backwards compatiblity. Im 16 and was never into the PS series until i was 14 (was into Nintendo because i was young and stupid). If i was to buy a PS3 i want backwds comp simply because i want to educate myself in the roots of GofW, MetalGearSolid, Resident Evil and Silent Hill. So I think I might just make the room for the monolith that is the PS3

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