Kaz Hirai, head of SCEA, recently sat down with Times Online to answer a few questions about the new, redesigned PlayStation 3. One of the big changes seen in the marketing and messaging was an emphasis on the brand PS3, with the PlayStation 3 Spider-Man font not seen at all.
Turns out it wasn’t just because that font was fugly, but the word PlayStation made the entire logo less than legible.
From the Times Online interview:
[Question:] Talking of form and design, I see you’ve ditched the Spider-man typeface from the new PlayStation?
[Hirai:] We wanted to make sure that we set a new direction for the PS3. The PS logo with the capital P and small S has always been our logo, has always been synonymous with video games and I wanted to reset the thinking. Also internally I wanted to send the message internally that we are resetting the thinking, going back to our roots. What better way to do it than by resetting the logo? That puts the entire organisation on its toes. On a practical level, when you have PlayStation 3 spelt out, the aspect ratio was such that if you wanted it on a billboard it became tiny. It didn’t work in terms of visibility.
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