New PS5 Slim Colours From CES Are So Rattling Boring

Sony has made some fairly large reveals at tech showcase CES this 12 months—a mixed-reality headset, a primary have a look at the Gravity Rush film, and a automotive that you could management with a DualSense—so it makes the desultory choices of recent PS5 Slim colorways all of the extra disappointing. Crimson, blue and silver you say?! No matter subsequent: black?

Er, sure, there’s additionally black. Sony’s considerably smaller PlayStation 5 Slim was introduced in October 2023, and launched in November, with a promise of extra colourful choices for the aspect panels to return. Three of these have been proven at CES, as noticed by The Verge, they usually’re not precisely groundbreaking decisions.

OK, let’s be moderately affordable: they’re a superb crimson, blue and silver. Every has the look of a shiny new automotive, somewhat than the terrible plasticky Lego colours that consoles often obtain, and significantly better than the thicc PS5’s choices. The colours’ official names are Volcanic Crimson, Cobalt Blue, and Sterling Silver, and in the event you ask for them by these names in your native retailer, the workers are allowed to stare at you, unblinking, for as much as a full minute.

Whereas the default white PS5 Slim has a mixture of shiny and matte panels, these new panels are all matte, and can value you $55 for the privilege. That does appear an terrible lot of cash for purely aesthetic casing, and presumably we’ll see much more attention-grabbing selection accessible from cheaper third-party panels quickly sufficient.

The larger concern, to me, is it speaks of fully the mistaken angle towards this piece of {hardware} by Sony. Sure, in fact they need to woo the stylish crowds, the individuals who simply purchase CoD and FC2X (née FIFA) yearly, and wish one thing that doesn’t look silly subsequent to the TV. However, on the identical time, the PlayStation, it’s a toy. It’s for enjoying on. Why can’t we even have the choice for a little bit of pleasure? A splashy mixture of vivid colours, a kitschy flower sample, the quilt from Bat Out Of Hell?

OK, perhaps not Meat Loaf, and positively not wooden veneer, however one thing that means Sony acknowledges individuals use PS5s to have enjoyable. And even higher, go in Microsoft’s current glorious course, and let me decide a bunch of ludicrously clashing panel sections, to make one thing as hideous as my fantastic Xbox controller.

The Slim’s announcement weblog talked about, “Further colours shall be launched sooner or later,” however given the lifeless decisions for the primary spherical, it’s arduous to carry out a lot hope for greater than the addition of purple, light-blue and a few bloody camouflage design. I imply, that’s what the common PS5 has obtained.