AN ULTRA-RARE pre-release PlayStation 5 turned up on eBay – only to be swiftly removed.
The prototype console was listed for thousands, and marks a major security bungle for Sony.
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The listing was picked up by ZubyTech and Kotaku, and shows a strange version of the PS5 that looks totally different to the proper console.
In fact, the console in question is actually a developer kit.
That’s a pre-release version of the console with the proper hardware inside – but usually with a prototype exterior.
They’re created so that developers can create software like games and apps for the console, as well as to test the machine’s performance.
Sony never intends these “dev kits” to see the light of day, and they certainly shouldn’t be sold on for profit on eBay.
It’s likely that Sony would take legal action against the seller if they were discovered.
The console was listed for a whopping €2,850 – around £2,418 or $3,366.
That’s around five times the price of a regular PS5, and no surprise given the pre-release model’s rarity.
Unfortunately for PS5 fans, the console has since been removed from eBay.
So even if you wanted to buy it, you couldn’t.
And it’s almost certain that the “dev kit” console would be impossible to operate for general users anyway, as they typically require special access codes.
In any case, this design isn’t totally new to the world.
In fact, schematics and images of this PS5 model had leaked several times ahead of the official console launch.
Ultimately, the proper PS5 ended up looking very different.
The size came down a lot, although the real PS5 is still enormous compared to predecessors and rivals – including the Xbox Series X.
And the PS5 eventually adopted a white-and-black exterior with a much more streamlined shape.
