Fans Are Confused By This Piece Of PS5 History Being Pulled From eBay

It may seem too early in the lifecycle of the PlayStation 5 – which is approaching its first birthday — for gamers to think about it in terms of legacy collector's items. However, when a rare set of dev kits went up for auction on eBay, only to be mysteriously removed a few hours later, that's exactly what some fans thought they had stumbled upon.

The items were briefly viewable on eBay, and Twitter users @Zuby_Tech and @iDCx1337 shared screenshots of the offerings before the entire sale was delisted. @Zuby_Tech offered pictures of an actual PlayStation 5 Development Kit. According to Reddit user nerdshark, dev kits can include a console with an open architecture for studios to design and code games and are often bundled with the license to develop a title, making them hard to obtain otherwise. Meanwhile, @iDCx1337 snagged some photos of the PlayStation 5 Testing Kit, which is distinguishable from a dev kit. "They're almost the same as retail units, but with some debugging features enabled," explained Redditor MSTRMN.

The window of opportunity for fans to own these unique pieces of modern console history came and went far too quickly, as @Zuby_Tech reported that the auction became unavailable after just a few short hours. Here is how fans reacted when these early PlayStation 5 artifacts got pulled from eBay.

Bidding on the pair of developer PlayStation 5 systems, which included two all-black DualSense controllers, reached €2,850 (about $3,370) based on a screenshot on Twitter. The controllers pictured were early models from back when they were known as the DualShock 5. However, all that excitement dissipated after the auction went down without any word from the seller or eBay.

Fans on Twitter offered possible explanations for what happened. @andyn1080 speculated that the items might be part of a rare prototype dev kit. Gamers also questioned what the advantages of owning a dev kit might be. Commenters like @JohnnySaigon wondered if the systems are overpowered, while @jonathanScott04 said, "I am guessing it's a system that has no DRM or security features."

Some fans were content to admire the unique aesthetics of the all-black system, which had a more imposing design than the sleek retail PlayStation 5. Additionally, the eBay listing confirmed that the leaked photos of the dev kit from 2019 were accurate. @SuperDapperAdam said, "Is it just me or the dev kit actually looks WAAAY cooler than what the consumer ps5 looks like?" 

Since it appears Sony is clamping down on sales of these unique items, it will likely be a while before anyone outside of a development studio can get their hands on one.