Designed Objects: The Next-Generation Game Consoles
A game console is a portal to a dreamlike state of play. In designing game hardware and peripherals, manufacturers have a unique opportunity to create evocative mass-market objects. The design must suggest potential, power, control, wonder, escape. How well do the three new consoles introduced at E3 measure up, on that scale?
The PS3’s design is a clean break from the boxiness of all game consoles to date, and continues Sony’s tradition of borrowing from the visual language of Kohn Pedersen Fox. Where the PS2 recalled KPF’s Clifford Chance office tower in London’s Canary Wharf, the PS3 echoes the curved sweep of their 333 Wacker Drive in Chicago, even down to the subtle “folded edge” near the top. This strategy, to me is eminently successful at meeting the above criteria; they’re largely abstract, dynamically shaped and well-balanced, but also canvases upon which the buyer can project their own desires. From a functional standpoint, Sony’s kept the layout of ports largely identical to the PS2, which from a user interface perspective provides a measure of familiarity.
The PS3’s controller (wireless, naturally), at least in the prototype form shown at E3, retains the button layout of the previous generation: Directional pad on the left, the four L1/L2/ and R1/R2 shoulder buttons, the circle/square/triangle/cross buttons on the right, and two analog thumbsticks which can be depressed as “L3” and “R3” buttons as well.
But where the PS2’s Dual Shock was an agglomeration of matt-black cones and cylinders that oozed modernist machismo, the PS3 controller is an elegant silver crescent. It recalls the polished metallic sculptures of Jean Arp, or more prosaically, the retro-futuristic designs of Ibanez’ Maxxas guitars of the early 1990s.
The Nintendo Revolution console shown at E3 was really a marketing mockup, shown off by Nintendo of America VP of sales and marketing Reggie Fils-Aimé. While the hardware has yet to be finalized, NoA claims the shipping units will be the size of a couple of DVD cases. The mockup oozes mystery with its gloss black finish and blue LED-illuminated DVD slot – it’s that mysterious box from David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive! – but it’s still lacking visual oomph. Nintendo always manages to make its boxes look like kitchen appliances or computer peripherals, and not in a good way. No controllers have been shown yet, and maybe that’s a good thing - Nintendo’s controllers have always been a little bit unergonomic from my point of view, and maybe this is a real chance for them to get it right.
Microsoft’s XBox 360 has got to be the least visually inspired of our three contenders; While slimmer and trimmer than its boxy predecessor, the XBox 360 looks top-heavy and ungainly. Ironically, while the innards have switched from a modified PC platform to custom PowerPC chips, the outside has moved in the opposite direction, morphing from a macho black box into a budget PC.
The front panel does nothing to mitigate an asymmetrical, unbalanced hardware layout. There’s a pill-shaped door to hide front-panel connectors; when you feel you have to hide something, instead of integrating it into the design, something is surely wrong? The old-fashioned tray-loading drive is a long streak of platinum-silver (the only occurence of this color) in an off-white main body. There’s a big green button in an illuminated green ring, and a scattering of ports and slots. Bizarrely, the unit’s hard-drive expansion pack is a big lump on the side (or top, if you stand it up), adding to the lopsided mishmash. Why couldn’t they make it a discreet slot-in module that disappears into the back?
The controller looks alright, a modified version of the existing XBox gamepad - unlike the PS3’s, however, it doesn’t seem to really “belong” to the box it comes with.
Given that the PowerMac G5 (!) is the XBox 360 development platform, it’s a shame that their hardware team didn’t learn any design lessons from it. Apple’s approach since 1998, under Jonathan Ive’s direction, is to choose materials for practical reasons and then play to their natural beauty and strengths. The original G3 tower, iMac and iBook were all about the glories of polycarbonate plastic. The current G5s and PowerBooks are all about sleek aluminum, alternating smooth surfaces with perforated panels, straight lines with rounded corners. Compared to that standard, the XBox 360 definitely looks like it was designed in a committee.
June 19, 2005 4:02 PM
