PS5 dev kits briefly appear on eBay
Bid goodbye.
In a bold move that certainly didn't pay off, a pair of PlayStation 5 development kits appeared on eBay yesterday - although the listings didn't last more than a few hours before being removed.
As spotted by Twitter user iDCx1337, the listings were for a DFI-D1000AA dev kit and a DFI-T1000AA test kit (thanks, Kotaku). A screenshot of the DFI-D1000AA dev kit, complete with two all-black DualSense controllers, showed that the listing apparently reached a bidding price of €2850 (£2423) before being pulled.
It remains unclear whether eBay decided to remove the listings or whether Sony got involved, but either way, the listings apparently only survived a few hours before they mysteriously vanished. We still don't know how the seller got their hands on these kits: dev kits are normally given out to developers under strict NDA. It seems these two have somehow managed to trickle down into the hands of someone who was willing to take a punt on an eBay listing.
The test kit looks pretty close to the final released version of the PS5, but the dev kit is a different story - it's a real chunky unit that wouldn't have been out of place in my parents' living room in the early 2000s. A photo of the dev kit originally leaked all the way back in November 2019, although that one had a more silvery appearance. The Verge's Tom Warren commented at the time to confirm the dev kit was real, and noted that the large v-shaped size is to make it "more easily stackable for devs who are running multiple stress tests." And, of course, it was designed with cooling in mind - with the air pushed out of the sides and centre.
I'm about to say something controversial... but I actually prefer the dev kit to the PS5's final design.