Ikea's mock PS5 and Xbox make media center shopping less stressful

Sony's PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X take up a good deal of space. To navigate the physical issues that could come up with buying one and trying to fit it in a media center, Ikea has gone ahead and made cardboard cutouts of each console, according to Canadian writer Elyse Willems on Twitter. We've attached the image that Willems tweeted.

The PlayStation 5 console mock box mimics the actual console's gargantuan dimensions: it is about 16 inches tall, almost four inches long, and about nine inches wide. The Xbox X Series console mock box is a comparatively restrained 12 inches tall, and six inches deep and wide.

Bonus: Ikea is well aware of how big these consoles are. And it refused to miss the opportunity to point that out in biting terms. "Which Ikea media storage unit will be able to fit my new, meme-ishly oversized gaming console?" the company has printed on the side of the cardboard replicas.

Touché, Ikea — This is a particularly useful offer from Ikea given the fact that PlayStation 5 is the largest game console ever. And while, yes, it must be fun to try new video games through Sony's latest innovation, the console has proven to be a pain as far fitting it in a media cabinet goes. Like also consoles, it also benefits from decent airflow, so it's not advisable to squeeze it into a tight space like, say, sideways on the top shelf of your existing media cabinet.

A physical sizing guide will let Ikea customers brainstorm whether or not it's worth buying a TV stand where their PlayStation 5 or Xbox X series might be a little too snug in a corner. The guide is already taking off on Reddit where users have praised Ikea's thoughtfulness and ingenuity. The replicas remove the need to carry a tape measure, or worse, ferrying your own next-gen console to an Ikea outlet.

Is bigger always better? — If you're wondering why the PS5 is such a chonker, Sony engineer Yasuhiro Otori gave people an explanation in 2020. The cooling fan in PlayStation 5 is what takes up so much space. A smaller fan or two wouldn't be able to help the console run up to speed, plus it's harder to optimize multiple fans at once. Maybe Ikea can offer Sony some tips on that front. Or Microsoft can.