Sony unveiled a lot about their plans for 2020 at CES, including their next iteration of PlayStation. Perhaps unexpectedly though, the most simple part of their reveal got the most attention – the PS5 logo.
It surprised no one when Sony announced in 2019 that the next PlayStation would be the PS5. It wasn’t very inventive, but it was logical — something Xbox has been criticized for lacking with their seemingly arbitrary naming… considering Xbox One was their third console.
Even less inventive, is the console’s new logo — although ‘new’ is being somewhat generous. It bears the exact same layout, font and styling as the PS3 and PS4 logos before it, except of course with a 5.
It’s as safe as logos come, and while it does an adequate job, the internet was quick to make a mockery of Sony’s hard work.
It didn’t take long before Twitter was in a frenzy, jesting about the unbridled creativity of the graphic designers behind the new logo, alongside the time and effort they must have put in.
One actually creative video reenacted what the process must have been like for the ‘lead designer,’ simply replacing a 4 with a 5, and calling it a day.
Sony's lead graphic designer coming up with the #PS5 logo#SonyCES pic.twitter.com/7xOJXBWHCF
— chris (@bagel_chris) January 7, 2020
The post quickly racked up nearly 100,000 retweets, as PS5 logo memes became the new hot commodity on Twitter.
Although it may look like it took little to no effort, others pointed out that it was still probably deliberated over for days (possibly weeks), before the marketing team circled back around and went with the tried and tested logo.
The funniest part of the PS5 logo being identical to the PS4 logo is you *know* there were HOURS of meetings and discussions and notes and follow up calls and approvals for this design https://t.co/V9KLZCctbh
— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) January 7, 2020
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People talking about how bad the PS5 logo is…but it…looks like how it always has…lol. pic.twitter.com/Z3JX0ShvNb
— Jadeˣᵛ CW: Naruto Shippuden (@Wildbergerrrr) January 7, 2020
It wasn’t just Twitter of course, as Reddit’s r/gaming community were having a field day with the logo. The top voted post of the day was another showing the simplicity of the design — a copy and paste of the ‘P’, just swiveled upside down.
It wasn’t all at the expense of Sony’s design, though, as one creative user reimagined the PS5 if it had the logo of past consoles. The electric blue of the PS2 logo is a particularly good fit.
PS5 logo with previous designs pic.twitter.com/ZsbHgvJh2P
— Lumi 🐻❄️ – WOLVES HUNT IN PACKS ARISEN (@Lewmzi) January 7, 2020
Sony surely won’t mind all the mockery of their logo, after all, it’s just more eyeballs and discussion on their new product. Maybe they knew all along that a simple, nearly unchanged logo would get more reaction than a new one.
It even became the most popular Instagram post ever made by a company. So it’s done the job of capturing people’s attention at least.
However, it did somewhat overshadow some of the more important information, such as some of the new hardware specs of the PS5.