Inside the Many Boxes of the PlayStation 5: An Unboxing Gallery

The grand season of box opening continues with our first look inside the PlayStation 5 package. Sony’s next console comes out on November 12, and as usual info and opinions on the device will remain a closely guarded secret until certain embargos expire. We can’t tell you much about it yet, but we can share photos of the system itself, along with all of the boxes it comes inside. Box fans are going to love this thing.

Our PlayStation 5 arrived inside a box inside a box inside a box inside a box. It’s a legit four-boxer, at least if it’s mailed to you—presumably if you pick yours up from a store it won’t have that outermost box that it was mailed in surrounding it. (Although think of the lucky devils who have to unload these things in the store’s store rooms—I gotta think that’s at least one additional mega box beyond what I was blessed with. Talk about box heaven!)

It might sound wasteful to use this much packaging material, but Sony’s actually done a good job of making sure they only use sustainable, recyclable materials. Other than the system itself, along with the controller, power cable and HDMI cable, there’s no plastic used here. It’s all cardboard or paper. Even the twist-ties on the cables are made of a sturdy but pliable paper. Yeah, it’ll all take up a solid amount of space in your recycling bin, but at least unboxing a PlayStation 5 won’t leave you with a small mound of plastic to deal with.

Again, I’m limited in what I can say about all of this right now. Expect a console review soon, and thoughts on some of the launch titles as well. For now take a look at what the PlayStation 5 looks like both in and out of its packaging, along with a couple of close-ups of the new DualSense controller, which is a very striking and sharply designed little device. Then make sure you come back later this week for more on the PlayStation 5. And if you also want to see what the brand new Xbox, the Xbox Series X, looks like when it’s removed from its box, you can find that gallery right here.