Recently, user consolevariations on Twitter reported on the story of a Sony Playstation 5 development kit being sold as a thinly disguised PlayStation 5-themed pizza oven dubbed the "PizzaStation 5 Development Pizza Kit."
In console gaming, development kits are pieces of pre-release console hardware with added development features. Their release is usually strictly controlled—actually reselling a development kit from a console manufacturer is a surefire way to get developers or studios blocked, so it doesn't happen, especially not like this, though this clever disguise likely prevented automated systems from detecting the dev kit listing.
Of the details in the original development kit listing, the use of thin-crust frozen pizzas may not be the most amusing. Instead, one can't help but notice the custom spatula pictured with the unit, which features a classic PlayStation logo emblazoned just under the head of the spatula. With today's exchange rate in mind, this presentation ultimately earned the lister €6,050, or roughly ~ $6,500.
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Typically, seeing console development kits in the wild means that a studio was robbed or shut down or that the existence of upcoming consoles is being leaked via photos or more of their development kits in action or shipment. For example, reports of PS5 Pro dev kit leaks in December 2023 culminated in a series of full PS5 Pro specs leaks in March 2024.
While this story is being circulated here and elsewhere across the Internet today, thanks to @consolevariations' find, there are some rumors that this may have happened as early as September of 2021. Unfortunately, we could not verify this or find the original listing, but it would make sense, considering how long the standard PS5 has been on the market.
In any case, chances are high that this PS5 dev kit or any other PS5 dev kit used outside its intended context will become useless when it reaches the phone home to Sony's PlayStation servers. Modern dev kits are tightly controlled in today's always-connected era, and we don't expect this to be any different.
However, this PS5 dev kit does bring back fond memories of all the PS5 pre-release speculation and fake renders people used to make. A five-V shape and such heavy ventilation built right in give some nice theming to the device and should improve airflow. Of course, the PS5 we eventually got was a "slimmer" but significantly taller design closer to its predecessors.
