Aesthetics

I don't think the PSP is as sexy looking as everyone makes it out to be. It looks good but it's not the top looking thing that people make it out to be. What makes it remarkable is that Sony seem not to have a clue in console aesthetics.

I look at the PS2 and think how ugly a system it is. I'm thinking that this was a fluke of design and whomever it was that designed it was fired (out of a large cannon into a large brick wall). What we have seen at E3 this week, well I could never have prepared myself for what Sony unveiled. My two intial thoughts were along the lines that Sony have taken convergence too far. Namely I thought that:

1. Didn't I see a Breville Sandwich Toaster in the Argos catalogue that looks the same
2. George Foreman is going to have the lawyers slap sense into Sony for copying the design of his lean mean grilling machine.

Now when the whole PSP vs DS thing kicked off, the big fuss was about the PSP looking better than the Nintendo DS and that being grounds enough for buying a PSP over the DS. Now people are hypocrits, with the gaming community being particularly bad, especially those that Sony aim at. Despite the Revolution and the Xbox360 looking a whole lot better, no-one will state that they would prefer either of those over the PS3 due to looks alone.

So why do people make a song and dance about such issues as I have done? I'd like to offer the idea that due to the way in which consoles fail to excite, we need something in order to get people and take notice.

I couldn't care less about the processor running at 16 gigaflops or one console having 0.001% less power than the other. At the end of the day, it won't make a difference aside from the schmoes out there who want to eek out the most miniscules of power or the schmoes who have no real clue apart from "ps2 rul3z cus I cun ply war3z". The discerning gamer knows that the current crop of consoles still have potential that's been left untapped (apart from the PS2 that's showing it's age in a big way).

So it's sad seeing consoles being rushed out so early just to get a market foothold in the next generation. Does this mean for the next generation we'll maybe get a console out in under a year due to the market going against the manufacturer?