Is This PlayStation 5 Design Patent Leak Accurate? You Decide
Another day, another supposed leak of the PlayStation 5 design ahead of the highly-anticipated holiday 2020 launch. | Source: CCN.com
- Alleged design patent for PlayStation 5 leaked to CCN.com.
- Features many similarities to the existing PS4.
- More than a likely fake.
As speculation about Sony’s PlayStation 5 plans gathers steam on an almost daily basis, a new contender has joined the fray. This time around, it’s a leak of the alleged design patent for the final consumer version of the PlayStation 5.
Alleged PlayStation 5 Design Patent
The images were forwarded to CCN.com via an anonymous tip, seemingly having surfaced on message board 4chan first. 4chan defines itself by oft-spurious rumors with the occasional legitimate leak thrown in.
We are unable to confirm the identity of the anonymous tipster who contacted us, but their opinion is that the designs are indeed legitimate.
As such, we can’t confirm the legitimacy of the images, nor do we recommend viewing them as representative of Sony’s final design plans for the PlayStation 5. We recommend skepticism and a sizable dollop of salt.
While a search for recently filed Sony Interactive Entertainment patents didn’t return any recent results, it doesn’t shed light either way. Sony will have pulled out all the stops to ensure bureaucratic imperatives don’t spill the beans ahead of a reveal event.
The design’s uncanny similarity to the PlayStation 4 raises questions. The main body of the design is reminiscent of a PS4 reshaped into a parallelogram with the top and bottom halves oppositely slanted.
The design also positions the side vents, power/disc eject buttons, and disc drive almost identically to the PS4.
Is it Fake?
As Sony demonstrated with the PlayStation logo reveal at CES 2020 earlier this month, brand continuity is at the core of next-generation plans.
But, looking back at previous iterations of PlayStation hardware, each generation has heralded a sharp swing in both design and overall aesthetics. With that in mind, it’s not unreasonable to assume Sony will want to differentiate the PlayStation 5. It’s likely to do this through a design bearing only a sparse nod to the PS4.
Interestingly, the purported design patent does appear to match up with a very blurry image of a rumored in-the-flesh PlayStation 5 that surfaced earlier this week.
Should the design turn out to be legitimate, then Sony’s console already looks a lot more inviting than Microsoft’s PC-like Xbox Series X.
We can’t discount an elaborate ploy at the hands of a particularly resourceful troll. Regardless, all this will be sure to rack up the hype for the PlayStation 5 even more.
