For months, Sony has been teasing surprising little tidbits about the PS5, from the outlandish announcement of the DualSense controller to the reveal of the console's body design at the Game Showcase. And now the company has revealed what the PS5 box art will look like.
And well, it looks like a box. There's a game disc inside. Let's contain our excitement. Sony introduced the official PS5 game box on the PlayStation Blog, using "Spider-Man: Miles Morales" as an example. For the most part, the PS5 game box is very similar to the previous PS4 model.
The box itself is translucent blue, but this time there is a silver border at the top instead of blue. On the sides, instead of the PS4 logo, there is a PS5 logo. Naturally, the majority of the front of the box is taken up by the game's title and artwork. In this case, Miles Morales as Spider-Man is mid-swing.
One thing that is not clear from Sony's submission is the size of the game box: the PS3 game box is smaller than the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube discs, breaking tradition a bit; the Xbox 360 discs were in a larger case, while the Xbox One games followed Sony's lead by reducing the size of the box.
This is presumably because the need to include physical instructions and maps was eliminated, and instead developers opted to include the information in the game itself. In other words, let us assume that the PS5 game case will be roughly the same size as the PS4 disc container.
Of course, there is also the question of how many gamers will choose to purchase physical discs once the PS5 is released; the PS4 and Xbox One have arguably normalized downloading console games instead of purchasing physical discs. Xbox One S All Digital Edition does not have a disc drive at all, and the PS5 Digital Edition will likely follow suit. Naturally, for those who purchase only digital games, the design of the title's box is not an advantage to consider either way.
On the other hand, physical media may not be in as much decline as it appears. Just two years ago, physical versions of popular games sometimes accounted for 75% of sales. While there is little doubt that these numbers are now smaller, it is hard to believe that they have declined completely and drastically.
This is why. Physical PS5 games will come in a box, but that box will look almost exactly like a box of PS4 games. While not shocking news by any means, it is good to see Sony keeping fans informed until the next major update. With any luck, we'll hear about the PS5's price and release date sooner rather than later.
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