Maybe one day, if I acquire the self-confidence, the swag, the alpha-dog commitment to my own personal brand, maybe then I will become powerful enough to pull off what Jim Ryan, the newly minted Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO, did Monday night at CES: announce a console logo as if it was a perspective-shifting event of earth-shattering proportions.
Pure magic. I've never been more enthralled. Without doubt, the biggest flex at CES this year.
In anticipation of Sony's CES conference, taking place at the biggest tech conference in the world, some of us had heard rumors. All signs pointed toward Sony announcing something PlayStation 5-related. Given that Microsoft unveiled its next-generation console at The Game Awards in December, the timing seemed right. So when Ryan walked out at the opening of Sony's Conference, we waited with bated breath.
Powerful.
SonyIn CNET's CES press room you could cut the tension with a knife. The chatter hushed, the TVs cranked to full volume. Journalists hunkered over their computers, brows furrowed in anticipation of what we were about to see.
Which turned out to be… absolutely nothing.
Sony announced a logo. A PlayStation 5 logo that looks exactly like every other PlayStation logo, except instead of a "3" or a "4" or a "P" or a "V" there was… a "5."
Then Ryan just sort of walked offstage, delivering the purest of mic drops for a logo that looks exactly like everyone expected it would. A logo that literally could not have looked like anything else even if it wanted to.
This unveiling, this "reveal," was truly spectacular. The preamble, the tone -- everything suggested pomp. It was played completely straight, with no suggestion that Sony was aware that making a huge deal of a logo announcement was strange or outlandish. Instead: a complete commitment to its own self-importance. The world must stop spinning on its axis for this moment in time, this logo. A logo that looks the same as the other logos, except for the number 5.
Incredible. Majestic. Powerful.
It's my favorite moment of CES 2020 so far. The perfect reflection of a brand so confident in its position as the No. 1 console on the planet that its response to a full product reveal by its biggest rival was a logo announcement.
It's not hubris. It's more than that. It was a flex so savage it bent space and time. I'm just thankful I got to witness it live. My grandchildren will be hearing about this.
