Imagine going to a bankruptcy auction and finding a PlayStation 4 development kit. Crazy, right? Now, imagine that PS4 development kit is filled with over 800GB of content from a now defunct gaming studio. You probably have a better chance of getting struck by lighting.
And, yet, Reddit user kaneda2004 purchased one at a recent auction, and it appears to be filled with content from United Front Games, the same studio behind beloved open-world game Sleeping Dogs.
The development kit, according to Reddit commenter SuddenInclination, is said to be a NEO dev kit, which is used to develop games for Sony’s latest PlayStation 4 Pro. Sadly, United Front Games shut down in October, which means we’ll never get to see what the studio was working on.
As Kotaku notes, the files on the dev kit are encrypted because the developer license has expired, something Sony requires is renewed every 90s days for security reasons. Kaneda2004 has apparently reached out to members of the development community to gain access to the over 800GB of content on the device, which could contain assets for whatever game United Front Games was working on before the studio was shut down.
Imagine what he’ll find
Even if nothing of substance is discovered on the dev kit, it’s still a rare find. Dev kits don’t often leave developer circles, and when they do they’re typically for older consoles.
If kaneda2004 finds anything of note, like what United Front Games was working on before being closed, we will be sure to let you know.
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