Why are launch consoles never multichromatic?

Base PS2? Black.

Base Xbox 360? White.

Base PS4? Black.

Wii U? White.

Base Xbone? Black.

What about red? Pink? Purple? Cyan? Magenta? Rainbow?

Do populations generally prefer black/white consoles in their living rooms because it blends in as a neutral colour? Is it cheaper to mass produce? Or is it conforming to technology box norms (historically neutral colour palette) which potentially feed in to consumer expectations?

Discuss.

The Switch came with multicoloured joycons. The SNES could also be considered multicoloured as well I guess.

Gamecube came in several colors too

It's harder to make it look sleek, plus the neutral colors make it easier to fit well in whatever setup you have in wherever your console will stay. Plus, console makers don't want it to look like a toy and the look of those "gamer" stuff on desktops, keyboards, chairs, headsets and whatnot is way too futuristic and can look out of place to most people's setup, specially casual gamers which make the most of console sales. Those are the reasons I can think about from the top of my head.

360 had faceplates at launch. I had a royal blue one. Theres dozens of different designs for xbox 1 , but not sure what was available at launch.

Reason for black/white consoles Is because that's the colour most people would go for....minimalistic or at least match the existing components.

@true_link: The "sleek" and "toy" points are ones I hadn't considered. I wonder why we've come to associate colourfulness with toys though. I've noticed the trend too.

@Archangel3371: The Switch did, but technology is overwhelmingly black or white (at least from my experience).

I honestly don't know, but if you look at some users in this board, they despise colorful stuff because they think it's "childish" and not "manly" (lol). But this is probably some design trend to eletronics in general. You see, eletronics are mostly black and SOMETIMES brushed steel.

I think we'd have to read about the history of design to understand why this is the way it is.

@true_link: Sounds like an interesting topic to explore! Added to the list ;).

I hope next gen consoles take more design risks though. The current gen ones look nice but don't do anything special imo (except for the Switch).

Some people like to match their appliances with their surroundings for aesthetic reasons. A console is no different. A black or white console can go with almost any environment. I’ve always thought the GameCube may have done better had it launched with a black option (they fixed that later on, but long after the console was deemed a failure). Later on in a generation you’ll see the multicoloured consoles launch for collectors or whatnot, but the less funky option will always reign supreme.

Well let see:

-Atari made from black and wood.

-calecovision it yellow and dark brown grey

-GameCube launch with purple.

-GameCube black version also have light grey.

-Xbox 360 it white and grey and have shiny chrome.

-advance game have all kind of color.

Nintendo 64 have one shape like a pikachu(a Pokemon).

Pretty sure only Sony consoles does that. Xbox and Nintendo has a pretty good track record at having color options.

@sakaixx: wut? OG Xbox, black.

360 - white and black

One - white and black.

Nintendo is the only one of the 3 that offers colors on its consoles and mostly on the handhelds, since the Wii it's been black and white. And the switch is not colorful, only the joycons are.

@XVision84: Well you did say that they “never” did so I was just pointing out that there have been some.

@true_link: og xbox is very dark green....

Oh hey post number 5k.

@Archangel3371: Good point, yes I should have worded the OP to point out majority rather than absolute. Live and learn ;)

Nintendo systems. 'Nuff said.

Is it? It looks black to me. Anyway, it still follow the same rules of the other eletronics.

@sakaixx: OG Xbox is black with a big green circle in the middle.

Because people who buy electronics when they are most expensive don't want to wind up with a pink one just because that was what was available. People who sell consoles want them to move as fast as possible, and having an undesired color sit on the shelf is bad for reputation. Nevermind the fact that at launch is when these things are also most expensive to produce.

Thank you for joining my TED Talk.

@Sevenizz: the Gamecube did have black available at launch. Launch color choices were Jet Black and Indigo Blue(purple).

The mistake was that the purple one was featured in almost all promotional material for launch.

A blue PS5 are launch would be nice.

You could always just customize the console's plate yourself is what I would do and if you can do that on a PC, you can do it on a console as well. Don't really care about colors of a console's base launch.

I miss seeing game systems released in a variety of colors.

I remember the Gameboy Pocket in particular released in a variety of colors, and there was a whole ad campaign promoting it.

I thought it was cool. You could buy one the color you liked, or a color that suited your personality. Even the N64 and PSX released in a variety of colors. (later on.)

Nowadays you get systems emblazoned with logos from one specific game release, which couldn't be farther from neutral. At least colorful game consoles stood out and had personality.

Because Nintendo is a kiddy toy company. Bright colours everywhere.

Sony is for adults.

Microsoft is for teens.

I think it has to do with limited edition consoles. A red 360 was only for gears and re5 if I remember right. Nintendo has a shit million versions of the ds and 3ds. Ps3 slim had some. And now you have every game having a limited bone or ps4 console.

@reavis86: You got proof of that? Because I specifically remember a big fanfare when the new colours launched a few years later. I should know - I bought one and gave the indigo one to my nephew.

@Sevenizz: I bought the black one day one.

On the wikipedia page scroll down to the hardware section. The second sentence if the 4th paragraph in the hardware section reads: "The system launched in "Indigo", the primary color shown in advertising and on the logo, and in "Jet Black".[43] "

I waited in line at Bestbuy for the midnight launch and everyone was fighting over the black ones. If you bought a purple one, you were uninformed about gaming or your uninformed parents just bought a purple one.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameCube

Also in this forum I'll link, people are debating over what colors were available at launch and numerous people on there bought a black one day one.

https://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?97538-First-GameCube-colors

Because having multiple color SKUs can be expensive and cost a company money if demand for a certain color is too high or too low, so they prefer to go with one neutral color.

The same reason most furniture comes in shades of black, brown, or white: most people don't want something garish in their presence; it's distracting, ugly, and not really good for creating a relaxed, peaceful living environment.

I mean, I get it, sometimes people want something fun or flashy, and that's fine, but I don't see why MS, Sony, Nintendo, and so forth would divert their assembly line to create some random colors (especially at launch, when demand is highest) for something only a fraction of the people want.

This is what I thought of as well.

False and ignorant generalizations of the video game demographics of each of the companies.

In order to get lots of SKU's in the store they settle on one color at first.

Gamecube was purple when it launched :P

It's more like which console hasn't been... every single one ends up with a bunch of variations and different colors.

I think the basic model is normally black or white though, yes, I guess.

Other colors just don't look good or Sell very well. The Gamecube launched in Black and Horrible purple. People hated the purple color. However the all Black didn't help the all black PlayStation 3 20Gig launch console. I like the look of this version better. Even though the 60 gigger is the better console. Colors like yellow and puke green are best reserved for Special edition consoles. The Simpsons themed Xbox 360 and original Xbox Mountain dew consoles.

Color works best for special edition consoles. Spiderman PS4 Red or Red Wii Mario anniversary 25 year edition consoles However launch consoles will always be Black or white.