PS4

PS4 excitement is reaching a fever pitch ahead of Sony launching the system in the US at the end of the week, and I thought I’d take a brief break from the console wars to take a look back at how far we’ve come

All throughout the past console generation, people have been speculating what the PlayStation 4 might look like. It led legions of artists to try their hand at a PS4 concept, and the results have ranged from amazing to hilarious over the past few years. Many of these still show up in search results even when you’re looking for images of the actual PlayStation 4 today.

Making the system itself look particularly stunning usually takes a backseat to practicality in the end, but it’s interesting to see what it might have looked like when no such considerations needed to be accounted for. Microsoft's MSFT +0.03% Xbox One (then called the Xbox 720) also underwent this same theoretical design process in the public, and I’ll do a companion post closer to that system’s launch. But for now, enjoy the PS4 that might have been.

First, as a baseline, here’s the real PS4 in all its conservative, angular glory. It’s thin, small, and about to sell millions of units. But now for a look back at what could have been:

This was one of the most widely circulated concepts over the past year. It was created by Joseph Dumary, featured on Yanko Design and even came with a full set of theoretical specs. This is one of the only ones here that looks like it could be the real thing if you didn’t know any better, though the final design is much more subdued.

This is one of a whole gallery of images that redditor smoothmr pieced together after Sony released their “teaser” video showing bits and pieces of the console while still managing to avoid a complete picture of it. I’d almost forgotten at this point that the console box reveal was a big event, and separate from the E3 debut of the controller. Looking back, that remains a really weird decision.

This design was crafted by a NeoGAF user after the debut of the controller, but ahead of the console itself. It’s relatively tame compared to most of the other ones found here, and actually looks a bit closer to the Xbox One than the final PS4 product.

Now we start getting wacky with this mock-up from Focus Design. It’s sort of reminiscent of a giant iHome, and there appears to be a disc drive in the front that leads to…thin air? I actually don’t mind the slimmed down Dualshock design.

This was another widely circulated concept, but one that nearly everyone knew was just an exercise in design. Created by Tai Chiem, this PS4 looks more like a PS6 or 7, as he assumes that Sony is a bit more ahead of the times than they actually are. The glass is a holographic-ish touchscreen, and there doesn’t seem to be much room for actual hardware. Despite how futuristic the design is, it’s surprising he still included a disc drive.

An incredibly minimalist design from Gavin Ringquist, this imagines that the PS4 didn’t want to stray too far from past consoles, opting for sleekness and simplicity over bells and whistles. Packaged with this, however, was a Dualshock redesign that correctly predicted the central touchscreen.

 designed this angle-filled concept that would look right at home in TRON. I like that it’s different than the usual boxes, but five USB ports seems like an odd number. It’s a bit too asymmetrical to make it to final production, but it’s one of my favorites featured here.

Here’s a concept from someone known only as “Gynga.” It’s sort of a modified PS3 with some touchscreen capabilities on the console itself. A few designs have stuff like this, including Tai Chiem’s above, but I don’t think they’re considering not many people are ever sitting directly in front of their consoles, able to interact with features and menus on the system itself. It may look cool, but I don’t think it’s a terribly practical feature.

I’m not sure who the master designer behind this one was, but if I had to guess, I’d go with Rainbow Brite. This is sort of the tiger print rug of PS4 concepts, including a grain on the console itself made up of the traditional button symbols. And who doesn’t love that pink square button? Fierce!

Oh man, I remember that banana controller back from the PS3 concept days. Wasn’t that an official Sony prototype at one point? Anyway, it’s back in this design, and comes with a round console as well. Both couldn’t be further off the mark, but the attempt to be different is appreciated.

From designer Nebojsa Nadj comes this concept which imagines Sony going nuts with a completely new color palate for the PS4. Either that’s a very small disc tray or this console is the size of a coffee table. I do love the new controllers, which look like miniature alien fighter jets. Did Nadj correctly predict Valve’s thumbstickless touch controllers with this design?

You laugh, but they’ll probably be selling this in China by year’s end. What, you don’t want to play four games at once with seven of your friends?