Can anyone explain to me why people are obsessed with how the PS4 looks like?

[danasider]

I am a Sony fan–not a fanboy, but I've bought and continue to buy their home consoles– and I'll say it myself, I was surprised to not see a reveal of the actual box. I thought that the presentation was fine, great even. I even told my girlfriend that I knew what what I wanted for Christmas this year (PS4, doy, haha). But I, like many others as evidenced by the sheer volume of posts/articles across numerous gaming sites (this evidence without numbers may be anecdotal, but that doesn't mean it's inaccurate, just surf for yourself) expected a proper reveal of the box at the end, so I agree with sales2099. Would have been a good climax to 2 hours of buildup.

Sure they gave us a lot of info, and I understand that there needs to be something left for E3 and the rest of the year to keep the hype train going before release. That's business. Maybe E3 can really show us the power of the PS4 through its unannounced games. But there are a few things one expects to see in an event like this. I was hoping for pricing, but I am not sorely disappointed that we didn't get that. Still Sony should have at least showed us something physical outside of the controller. Even if it's ugly or needs tweaking because of the innards not being finalized till recently, they could have at least given us a taste of their design. This is a (presumably) expensive piece of hardware that will be the hub of a lot of people's entertainment centers. Currently my PS3 takes that spot, and I'll probably get the PS4 even if it looks like a turd (I might just hide it), but a lot of people won't.

And remember when the boomerang PS3 controller was shown how many people gave Sony flack for it? Imagine how many people would not buy the system just for that feature. Crisis averted, thankfully. Now, just imagine if their box is a disaster and they reveal it only 3 or 4 months before launch? People like to think it's all about the games, but in a media driven world, aesthetics and style matter. Just look at how successful Apple is (and I'm not trolling apple, I am writing from a macbook).