I haven't traveled with a game console, but I have traveled with a 20" LCD monitor, 10 hard drives, video cards, a motherboard, CPUs and memory etc. Nearly an entire desktop computer without a case in my carryon. I think the laptop requirement only applies to laptops. I certainly didn't remove anything from my backpack. I was very worried that they would try to force me to turn the computer on. Since I didn't have a power supply or keyboard (among other things) that would have proven difficult. Every time my bag was viewed through the x-ray machine it was selected for secondary inspection. They removed everything and then left it in a pile for me to repack. It took a while but it was no big deal. So you can probably expect a secondary inspection and no more. I was very, very worried about the whole thing, but it really turned out okay. I tried multiple times to call the TSA and ask about what would happen, but of course that information was SSI.