Changes in Design of the New Model PlayStation®3 System and Attention to Detail
The new model PlayStation®3 system consolidated all the previous designs - I imagine you focused a lot on the detailed concepts.
That's right. In particular, it was difficult to decide whether to remove or keep the curve of the system as it was the striking characteristic of the PlayStation®3 system. Some people in the company suggested to remove it to design a "new model." Well, as far as I was concerned, I wanted to keep it. I believed that the curve is the essential identity of the design of the PlayStation®3 system. One glance at the curve lets people know that "this is PlayStation®3". If the top were flat, I thought it would not have the look of the PlayStation®3 system. I was determined to keep the curve, and looking back, I think it was good to focus on this.
By talking to you, I can now appreciate the essence of the first generation PlayStation® and the PlayStation®3 system. What about the essence of the PlayStation®2 system?
The greatest feature of the PlayStation®2 system is the grainy texture of the surface. We applied the exact same texture to the new PlayStation®3 system.
You didn't use the glossy finish that was in the initial mock-up.
Right. Surely a glossy finish gives a more gorgeous look. I said earlier that we were aiming for a casual look, but the major objective of minimizing costs came before that. We wanted to focus on detailed designs yet we had to minimize the cost as much as possible. The answer when we considered everything overall was agrainy finish. A grainy finish keeps the form without scratches during mass production, and since we already had good experience with this when we produced the PlayStation®2 systems, we decided to go with this concept with confidence.
There is no waste from an ecological viewpoint, right?
You can put it that way. Furthermore, we wanted to expand the range of users by providing a friendly and casual image, which was the original objective. Expanding the range of users would mean that more children will have more chances to play, so having an almost scratch-free grainy finish was a big advantage.
So you improved the design further based on the first generation PlayStation®3 system, right?
We first created many Styrofoam pieces and created the initial mock-up designs to determine the size before moving on to other tasks. We worked it out one by one, for example, whether to add silver on the lines placed on the logotype, the edges, and the control panel based on our various design and cost factors. We wanted to give a high-class sense of the PlayStation®3 platform while minimizing the cost. It may have been the most difficult part.
That high-class feel of the PlayStation®3 system was retained via use of the silver color in the system control panel, correct?
Yes, that's correct. And we actually wanted to keep the look of the first-generation PlayStation®3 system. We focused on keeping the original design yet explored ways to update the design further.
Speaking of the color, why did you limit the system color to just charcoal black?
In the end it was based on our customers' needs. We do receive many requests for color variations of the system, not only for the PlayStation®3 system but for other systems as well. We keep reasearching future color variations for the new models, but so many customers choose black when the product actually goes on the market. From the days of the PlayStation®2 system, the base color has always been black. So it was our natural choice to release the first model in charcoal black.