New Snap of PlayStation 5 Dev Kit Appears Online

A much clearer picture of the PlayStation 5 dev kit has surfaced online alongside what appears to be the next-gen console's controller. | Credit: Charly Triballeau/AFP

• New image of PlayStation 5 dev kit appears online.
• Offers first look at PS5 controller.
• Unlikely to be the final retail design.

We’ve known what the PlayStation 5 dev kit looks like for a few months now.

Late summer spawned patent documents registered by Sony before an in-the-flesh image found its way onto the internet in mid-October. The image wasn’t what you’d call well-framed and didn’t give us a good look at the overall design of the unit.

PlayStation 5 Dev Kit & First Look at Controller

Today, a Twitter user sporting the handle ‘The Drunk Cat’ posted a much clearer picture of the PlayStation 5 dev kit alongside what appears to be our first look at the console’s haptic feedback controller.

Sadly, the snap captures the controller from the side. The blurred angle makes it hard to pick out any noticeable differences from the existing DualShock 4 – other than it appears heftier and the thumb sticks slightly raised.

The eagle-eyed among you may notice the PS4 and PS4 Pro dev kits nestled behind the significantly larger PS5 kits.

Not the Final Retail Design, Probably

Before anyone jumps the gun and calls foul on a design reminiscent of what the future was expected to look like in the 1950s, we can almost guarantee the final retail product won’t look anything like the dev kit.

Dev kits very rarely resemble those of the actual shipped consumer product. Sony doesn’t design them for their visual merits. They are functional prototypes for studios to develop games in time for the launch of the console proper.

Of course, that doesn’t distract from what is one hideous piece of technology. The emphasis on broad vents and the V shape suggest sufficient cooling stands as a priority for Sony.

It will be interesting to see how this translates into the final product. My only hope is that the PlayStation 5 doesn’t sound like a concord taking off as the PlayStation 4 so often does.

As always, keep your salt shaker at the ready. Neither Sony nor anyone resembling an official source has confirmed the unit is real. We can’t discount that this may turn out to be an elaborate troll.