PlayStation 5 Prototypes Listed on Japanese Auction Site

[T0@st]

A Japanese seller active on Yahoo Auctions has been listing PlayStation 5 prototypes consoles—their time limited (24 hour) offerings have probably been implemented to dodge the wrath of Sony Corporation's legal team. A "Prototype 2—not for sale" devkit was made available last week and eventually sold for around $5500 (JP¥ 800,000). A "Prototype 1" unit was purchased for JP¥551,000 (~$3810) over the weekend, and another auction was created this morning—the unmarked system started off at JP¥600,000 (~$4150). The seller has gained some notoriety within the enthusiast scene, due to their acquisition of other rare bits of hardware, including PSP development kits.

It is believed that these PS5 prototypes pre-date the devkit that leaked prior to PlayStation 5's official launch, so hardcore collectors could be enticed by the prospect of owning unusual items. Sony's very thorough tracing system will likely result in these units being unusable, but members of the gaming community are puzzled by the corporation's lack of action—given the seller's ability to acquire and sell all sorts of PlayStation development equipment, with vintages from over a decade ago.



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[Vayra86]

That looks... spicy. Perhaps that spaceship isn't so bad after all if you see this

 

[Canned Noodles]

I would love to see the inside

 

[LabRat 891]

Looks ugly, but better ventilated/cooled.

I would love to see the inside

This.
One of the 'techtubers' will undoubtedly get their hands on one soon. I doubt we'll have too long to wait and see this thing's guts.

 

[mechtech]

Hmmmm

Maybe there is more money in selling 'not for sale' prototypes??

 

[drno2]

Devkits are unusable without activating them through the playstations partners program. But maybe a prototype did not have this requirement... If so, this could be useful for reverse-engineering some of the functionality for an eventual PS5 emulator.

 

[Deleted member 185088]

Devkits are unusable without activating them through the playstations partners program. But maybe a prototype did not have this requirement... If so, this could be useful for reverse-engineering some of the functionality for an eventual PS5 emulator.

That would be great, companies don't care or disappear and old games are lost forever like the 360 and PS3.

 

[R0H1T]

Great to see "not for sale" chips, prototypes on fleabay or other similar sites

That looks... spicy. Perhaps that spaceship isn't so bad after all if you see this

Hey some of those designs are great! I used to draw spaceships based on the anime designs some 20-25 years back, NASA's shuttles were also great inspirations. I think Elon/Bezos were "inspired" by some of them

I should check with that scrap dealer where he'd sell them

 

[trsttte]

But maybe a prototype did not have this requirement... If so, this could be useful for reverse-engineering some of the functionality for an eventual PS5 emulator.

I doubt it makes a difference, since the new consoles are running x86 I believe the main problem is creating a compatibility layer for the game SDK, the platform itself doesn't need to be completely emulated.

Devkits are unusable without activating them through the playstations partners program.

It might work for a few minutes/hours offline but as it has been shown with previous devkits, it will quickly become useless (if not instantly if anyone was dumb enough to connect it to a network)