Sony Designer on PS3 Shape? “New Concept.”

The PS3 innards? Fantastic. The outer shell? Hrm. As a straight up piece of hardware, the PS3 is impressive. That glossy dust-collecting Victorian waffle iron-shaped shell isn’t. Though! Sony was trying to do something different than you typical game console. Just listen to Sony designer Teiyu Goto explain it:

For PLAYSTATION®3, we employed a curvilinear and glossy surface. This shape and material is rarely used for conventional electronic appliances. It is different from VCRs, DVD players (whose widths are usually 430 mm), or gaming systems. It represents a completely new concept.

There is a reason, you know, that shape and that material aren’t used in conventional appliances.
Design Concept [PS3 Center via Next-Gen]