I have a confession to make: it would seem that I don't pay particularly close attention to hardware product shots. I recently discovered, thanks to the wisdom of my colleagues here at GamesRadar+, that I've been playing my PlayStation 5 upside down for years. This is the same console I reviewed over four years ago in a previous life, and it never once dawned on me that I was playing it in any manner other than the recommended. In hindsight, it does make a little more sense now why I could never get the stand that comes with to fit quite right.
How did I finally come to learn that I have been doing this "wrong" since before launch? Staff writer Dustin Bailey shared an innocent photo of his new PS5 Pro with the rest of us, and I lightly chuckled while looking at it. He'd photographed it upside down, I thought, and didn't even realize. And then a horrible realization dawned; Dustin probably had not done this wrong. Dustin knows what he is doing (unlike some people, whomst shall remain nameless) and ostensibly understands hardware better than I. Could it be possible that I'd mistakenly set my PS5 horizontally the wrong way up?
Right seems wrong
Could it be possible that I'd mistakenly set my PS5 horizontally the wrong way up?
Yes, it turns out, it could be possible. In fact, it is precisely what happened. There were of course signs beyond the fact that the stand wasn't right. When asked whether I had not thought it odd that the PS5 required me to insert discs in shiny side up, I offered the honest response of "the ps5 is a weird lil guy" and "he likes his treats a certain way." There's a reason I'm not a hardware editor, folks. Please never ask me what laptop to buy.
It's perhaps important to understand that I've seemingly had no trouble out of my machine for treating it this way. If anything, I've played my PS5 more than the average person given the unique circumstances of my job. I would argue that part of the reason it has taken this long to discover my impropriety is that it simply… probably isn't a problem at all, actually.
This isn't just me speculating and trying to save face. While the hardware team here at GamesRadar+ was horrified to learn what I'd done ("SO WRONG" and "ooooft" and "Why have you done this" and "That is cursed" were just a few of the responses) the group ultimately concluded that, while technically wrong, if I'd not encountered any issues as of yet then it was probably fine. Well, not fine, but not going to be a problem in terms of appropriately using the hardware. It's unlikely to catch fire, but it'll hurt everyone that knows about it mentally and emotionally.
You might think, "Well, now that he knows he's been doing it wrong, surely he'll flip it over and go about it the right way." You'd think wrong. I have no intention of doing anything of the sort, and until my PS5 decides to answer my defiance with bricking instead of playing discs fine and dandy nothing will convince me otherwise.
I wish I could say this is because of some higher reason, some meaningful argument to playing it this way, but it's not. The simple fact is trying to flip it around just looks wrong to me at this point. You've all been playing the PS5 with the disc drive underneath the console this whole time? I can't believe it; I won't. Is this hubris? Perhaps. Laziness? Absolutely. And if I'm being honest, there's some level of spite involved now that I know it horrifies others. I'm sure that only says very cool things about me.
If you're interesting in someone else better at hardware's opinion on consoles, check out our PS5 Pro review.
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