The new PS5 leak suggests that the V-shaped design could be legal

The new PS5 leak suggests that the V-shaped design could be legal

The buzz about Sony's next gaming console, the PS5, is growing rapidly. Fans online are already speculating what new features Sony will offer gamers later this year, and some are poring over patent filings to get a glimpse of what the PS5 will include.

Dutch website Let's Go Digital discovered a patent filed at Brazil's INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property) and later registered at WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) on August 13, 2019. The patent design, which also bears the name of longtime PlayStation engineer Hirohiro Otori, depicts a strange-looking box with a wedge right in the middle, perfect for placing a slice of pizza.

Twitter has also published a photo of a very similar design, placed next to a PS4 development kit, which is also a very similar design, but with the same name.

So, is this the final design for the PS5? Unlikely. First, it does not follow the MO of Otori, who also designed the PS4, which differentiated itself with sleek angled edges and a minimalist aesthetic. It is surprising that Otori would take such a drastic design step.

Also, structurally, the PS4 is not intended for mass production. The flared vents allow for structurally weak areas, which could cause packaging and shipping problems. There is a reason consoles tend to be flat and rectangular. Simple boxes can withstand a lot of weight. They have no pressure sensitive areas and are more efficient to manufacture.

That's not to say that Ohtori's development kit design won't make it into the final product; according to a Reddit user (via BGR), they were able to see the upcoming PS5 logo pop up on the Japanese PlayStation website before it was removed. Again, this may be a fake, so take it with a grain of salt.

The above design patents and images are most likely development kits. Below are pictures of development kits from various past consoles:

In addition to the design, rumors are circulating that Sony is having a hard time keeping the cost of the PS5 down. The memory market seems to be the culprit, with DRAM and NAND flash memory costing more than Sony had hoped.

According to Bloomberg, the PS5 currently costs $450 to produce, and the final retail price could be $500. And given Microsoft's mistake of charging $500 for the Xbox One at launch, Sony likely hopes to avoid such a scenario when it faces off against the Xbox Series X this fall.

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