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First PlayStation 5 console hands-on reveals mysterious nut

A bolt from the blue.

Over the weekend, PlayStation 5 was confirmed to be real and not just a figment of our collective imaginations, as a handful of Japanese press and YouTubers went hands-on for the first time.

Three games were shown in action, including Sony's own Astro's Playroom which comes bundled in with the PS5 itself. 4Gamer, Dengeki Online and AV Watch also got to try Gearbox loot slasher Godfall and Square Enix platformer Balan Wonderworld.

But alongside the games, this was the first time anyone not working on the console or its software had actually gotten to use the PS5 itself. There was much discussion of its size, Tower of Orthanc-style shape, and of... a mysterious nut.

Image credit: 4Gamer

As spotted by 4Gamer, and picked up on by The Verge, a curious metal nut or bolt can be seen when peering into the PS5's casing on the upper right. That report suggested the nut allows you to remove the PS5's contoured shell and access its innards - which may be where its expandable SSD slot is hiding. As of yet, Sony is still to show how and where this can be accessed.

Speaking of things still to be shown, this round of previews did not reveal the PlayStation 5 desktop and user interface, which will reportedly include a way to boot directly into specific modes or levels of a game.

Image credit: 4Gamer

Launch window big hitters Demon's Souls, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Spider-Man: Miles Morales were all absent. There was no word on the console's backwards compatibility situation, or answers to questions surrounding the amount of space available on the console's SSD, or the curious inability for certain PS4 games to carry their saves over onto PS5.

PlayStation 5 launches in just over five weeks in Japan and North America, and a week later here in the UK.

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