Want to wall-mount your PlayStation 4? There’s a rack for that — and it looks and works great

The video game world is full of odd accessories. Go to any garage sale or swap meet (or my house) and you’ll see boards meant to improve button input speed, inflatable boats that supposedly enhance a game’s experience, and chunks of plastic that you stand on to control a game (although it’s more successful at spraining ankles).

Today, I got this generation’s first odd video game accessory: the Forza Designs PlayStation 4 wall mount ($50 online).

We have wall mounts for television sets and speakers, so I mean … why the hell not a video game console?

Let’s mount this thing

Above: The bare minimum of what you’ll need to install

Image Credit: Stephen Kleckner/GamesBeat

What you’ll need

• A PlayStation 4 (DUH!)
• A philips head screw driver. Preferably a power drill, but if you’ve got the muscles, by all means, go analog
• A philips head bit and a drill bit
• A stud finder (if you don’t have one, your fist and a good pair of ears will work)
• A measuring tape
• A couple of tacks
• A pencil
• A level of some kind (optional)

The PlayStation 4 wall mount is essentially a custom-shaped plate with four holes and four screws, so you don’t have to be in Mensa to figure out how to install this thing. Still, I need to go over a couple of things that may accidentally slip your mind while installing.

If you’re straight up wall-mounting this thing in the run-of-the-mill residential home, please — for the sake of your PlayStation 4 — don’t mount this plate completely on hollow drywall.

Although Forza Designs packs the wall mount with four drywall anchors, speaking from previous experiences, mounting anything heavier than a picture frame on straight drywall eventually leads to disaster. I highly recommend that anyone installing this plate on drywall make it a general rule to only rely on two of the four drywall anchors and find a wall stud to attach the other two screws to, so the stud can take on most of the weight.

If you don’t have a stud finder, here’s a quick tip video on how to locate one in your drywall. The gist is that most modern American homes space wall studs out 16 inches apart from each other. Using your fist to knock on the wall, you’re going to try to locate the wall stud. A hollow noise means no wall stud, while a much more solid knock means you’re close. You want to use a combination of the sound and measurement to make an educated guess on where a stud is located.

Installation

Above: Tack it and mark it.

Image Credit: Stephen Kleckner/GamesBeat

First off, I test installed the PlayStation 4 onto the mounting plate before approaching a wall. This way I could tell which orientation I wanted to mount the plate.

Then I picked a wall and a general location I’d like to mount the console. I located the closest stud and marked it with the pencil. Then I lined the plate up on the wall, making sure two of the four screw holes on the plate synced, vertically, with the wall stud location. I took two tacks and tacked the plate onto the wall (I like to put them across, one on an upper corner, then one on the opposite lower corner).

The tacks were only temporary and would not hold the weight of the plate for more than a few seconds. So if you’re doing this, don’t just walk away for a beer just yet. From here I get the plate as straight as possible (I eyeballed it, but this is where a leveler could come in). Then with my pencil I marked where the four holes are located.

Above: Although my phone’s camera is in “drunk vision mode,” you can see the PlayStation 4 defying gravity. Also, that I’m thinking of painting this wall orange.

Image Credit: Stephen Kleckner/GamesBeat

I took the plate back down. At this point, you would want to install the drywall anchors (I didn’t because I wasn’t planning on keeping the plate installed permanently). I recommend drilling a tiny pilot hole for the stud based screws, so it’s easier to guide them into the wood.

Once the holes were ready, I put the plate into place and screwed everything down. For safe measure, I gave the plate a few test tugs just to make sure everything was sitting nice and tight. Obviously I wasn’t doing chin ups on the thing, but it’s a good idea to make sure the slightest weight isn’t going to rip the plate off the wall.

At this point, the hard stuff is done. The PlayStation 4 slides into the plate horizontally, with the console’s midline channel acting as a sort of rail system for the mount’s slits to glide through.

What you’ll like

It delivers what it claims on the tin

Above: The PlayStation 4 Wall Mount floating in the void

Image Credit: Forza Designs

Well. It’s a wall mount for your PlayStation 4. It does the job.

Yet the more I look at this mount, the more I appreciate its design. I think most people, when desperate for a mounting solution, would go toward creating a monstrous nightmare with straps and planks of wood.

The Forza Designs’ PlayStation 4 wall mount is sleek and molded so it is as minimal as possible. The designer put some clever thought into how the PlayStation 4’s case is manufactured and, craftily, took advantage of the machine’s midline to create an improvised rail system.

That the wall mount is just a plate and four screws is a testament to how well-thought-out this product is. It could’ve been a lot bulkier and involved.

It works with accessories and add ons, as long as the midline is uncompromised

When I was told that I was going to receive this mounting plate for review, I was positive that my PlayStation 4 was not going to be compatible with it. I recently wrapped up a review of the Nyko DataBank, and I’ve adopted that piece of hardware as a permanent fixture of my PlayStation 4. The DataBank severely alters the console’s silhouette, so I went into installing this mounting plate positive that my machine would not fit.

I was wrong.

The thing is, the DataBank preserves the PlayStation 4 case’s midline, so the railing system still gripped onto my machine and didn’t let go.

The only issue I could see with my set up is the additional weight. But that’s not so much an issue for this plate to address, as it is my ability to install it. As long as I have the mount firmly attached to something sturdy, like a wall stud, the added weight shouldn’t be an issue (and it wasn’t).

What you won’t like

Nothing

Seriously. Forza Designs’ PlayStation 4 mounting plate does what it’s supposed to do, elegantly. At the same time, what it does is simple, so it’s not as if there is a lot of room for error here.

Why use this?

Above: Pffft … I dunno. Whatever.

Image Credit: Admit One Drinking Games

To be clear, this isn’t a knock on the wall mount. The thing is, when I was pitched to check out this product, my knee-jerk reaction was, “Who the hell would wall mount their PlayStation 4?!?”

I’m sure many of you had a similar response.

I spent several evenings trying to wrap my head around who would need to wall mount their PlayStation 4, and I’ve come up with a couple of scenarios:

• Game and Internet cafes that are light on shelf space could definitely use this to mount against a retaining wall
• Similarly, people living in tight quarters that either require their shelves to house more practical items and need a creative solution
• People who are in a situation where the console need to not budge. Not that those of use that decide to put our consoles on shelves are apes that kick our unsecured PlayStation 4s around the house, but I could see this being used on an airplane or an ocean vessel. Hell, why not outer space? Although, there would need to be a way to lock the console and keep it from sliding off the plate.
• Trade show booths where table space is scarce
• People who may want to hide their PlayStation 4. Not just under a table or inside a cabinet, but perhaps behind a wall mounted TV? I’m sure with some ingenuity, a craft AV tech could figure out hiding the entire console in plain sight, using this plate

Conclusion

I can tell you one place it likely won’t go: my walls. I don’t have a need to screw consoles to the side of my home, and I lack the interior design sense to make it look great even if I did.

But my situation isn’t yours.

If you see a need to mount your PlayStation 4 to something, and I’ve given a ton of scenarios where you might, this product works. It’s also a simple install, what with being a plate and four screws.

For once, I can’t find a drawback to a product I am critiquing. This mounting plate delivers what it promises. Hopefully, for Forza Designs’ sake, Sony doesn’t screw around with the midline of future PlayStation 4 revisions.

Forza Designs provided VentureBeat with a sample PlayStation 4 Wall Mount for review. Stephen Kleckner drilled into his walls to test it out, then quickly put a picture up to cover the holes. Hopefully his wife doesn’t read VentureBeat.