back to article Alleged 'Xbox 720' dev box eBay'd for $20,100

Would you buy an Xbox 720 development kit for 20 grand? Someone just has - paying in dollars rather than sterling, of course - after the "Microsoft Xbox Durango Development Kit" appeared on eBay last night. Durango Xbox development kit After 43 bids, the non-descript black tower system, said by the seller to contain an Intel …

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  1. Z-Eden
    WTF?

    Some people have too much money.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      When I worked as a game developer, official PS2/XBox dev-kits like this went for around £10k IIRC.

      1. Annihilator

        Worth it?

        Depends I guess - some dev companies won't have the opportunity to start exploring the early dev-kit and would value that opportunity at £20K

      2. Lee Dowling Silver badge

        Is that allowed at all? Seems to me that it would be a cinch for MS/Sony/etc. to put a clause on the software license that it's not to be transferred. And then you end up with a PC with some funny cards in it that don't do anything.

        I'd be more suspicious about the legality of this purchase even if it were real, rather than whether the auction actually is real or not.

        1. HaydnH

          "Is that allowed at all? Seems to me that it would be a cinch for MS/Sony/etc. to put a clause on the software license that it's not to be transferred."

          I don't know about the US, but in Europe software can be resold, google "oracle software license resale" for info on a previous failed attempt by Oracle to stop this.

          1. Annihilator
            Boffin

            @HaydnH

            "I don't know about the US, but in Europe software can be resold, google "oracle software license resale" for info on a previous failed attempt by Oracle to stop this."

            It's likely that whoever got their hands on this kit from MS had to sign a pretty hefty NDA to get it, so while you're right in that you can re-sell software licences, this won't have been a purchase from MS.

      3. jaduncan
        Facepalm

        Box: $20k

        Legal costs when MS wants it back: ~$50k

        Never, ever, ever getting release certification from MS: priceless.

        For some fuckups there's car insurance, for most other stuff there's eBay.

  2. Shane8
    Trollface

    Can i interest you in this small piece of ice....it was from the iceberg which sank the Titanic, only $250,000!

  3. This post has been deleted by its author

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Xbox simulator app."

    That could be worth something - not 20 grand though.

  5. mark 63 Silver badge
    WTF?

    how is this not

    "I've stolen in house dev software , ( dev kit and emu) and I'm flogging it on the fleabay"

    good job ms never bother suing anyone or going to court

    1. tath
      Coat

      Going to court?

      Perhaps they decided it was cheaper and quicker just buying it back for $20k!

  6. Rob
    Joke

    I have one of these...

    ... some guy in a car park with a white van and a funny accent sold it to me. I do find it strange though as to why MS have installed bricks in there new console like my box has, I still haven't figured out what they do yet.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. wowfood

      Re: I have one of these...

      That's just there as an example of what'll happen to the console a short while after the warrenty expires.

  7. Andrew Baines Silver badge
    FAIL

    Read the small print

    "This listing was ended by the seller because the item was sold"

    You normally see a message about bidding has ended, so looks like the seller is claiming to have sold it offline. Perhaps the account was set up as a joke - it is his first listing, then got his mates to bid it up to a stupid price.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    20 grand for a cardboard box with a potato in it

    priceless

  9. Wild Bill

    Other than Sony, I can't see who could possibly be interested in buying this.

    1. Annihilator

      Software houses not in a cosy relationship with MS - doesn't take much of an imagination stretch.

      Given Sony have such an architecture difference and know what specs are achievable, I doubt they give much of a f...

    2. Captain DaFt

      Besides Sony?

      Um... Nintendo, Apple, Steam... any number of patent trolling companies...

      Useful as a possible heads up for tech or IP lawsuits, funny ol' times we live in.

  10. LinkOfHyrule
    Joke

    Durango Durango

    They are my favourite 80s Australian wild-dog synth-pop band ever!

    ♫ His name is Ballmer and he dances on the sand... ♫

    Love dat shit!

    1. Annihilator

      Re: Durango Durango

      Was disappointed they didn't hand over the torch to Rio last night with that performance...

      1. LinkOfHyrule
        Thumb Up

        Re: Durango Durango

        That's a bloody good point!

    2. Toastan Buttar
      Pint

      Re: Durango Durango

      The Durango '95 purred away real horrowshow. A nice warm vibraty feeling all through your guttiwuts!

      Pint of Moloko Plus.

  11. Matthew 17

    Nice to see MS have improved the styling of their new machine

    Much less ugly than their previous designs.

  12. adam payne

    That thing sure is ugly.

    I can guess some devs would pay that kind of money for a chance at an earlier start with the platform.

    The sale probably won't go through though it'll probably get taken down.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My bet would be Sony

    They need a good laugh, they only just stopped laughing about that last Xbox bag of shite that Microsoft inflicted on the world (the only that only Americans were stupid enough to buy in any significant quantity).

    1. Steven Jack
      Mushroom

      Re: My bet would be Sony

      Xbox 360 has sold 67.2 million units as of April 19, 2012 with around 25 million of those sales being in the US. Sure that's a big number but hardly neglected by the rest of the world. Here in good old blighty around 5 million units have sold! So that's one Xbox360 for roughly every 4 households.

      You do nothing for your argument with these troll like flame statements, sure you might prefer PS3, plenty of people do, but that doesn't mean you are right and those who disagree are wrong. The fact is all platforms have their merits and disadvantages a more mature approach is to recognise this fact rather than coming from the point of view that “xbox is shite” and “PS3 is awesome!” were that the case it wouldn’t have sold more units than your beloved PS3 (63.9 Million units sold as of March 31, 2012). Still me thinks that posting with such venom perhaps you need to keep reassuring yourself that you spent your cash on the right platform, rather than just enjoying what you’ve got with confidence.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: My bet would be Sony

        Wow, 67.2m braindead consumers that would buy any old shite if Microsoft tell them too.

        I won't even bother pointing out the 16 month headstart and lower pricepoint the XBox had and squandered, or the RROD fiasco that earnt it top place by a long shot in the most unreliable consumer item of all time (60% failure rate).

        With all the last-gen features and abysmal reliability and costly addons and online play it didn't deserve 6.7m let online 10x that. The XBox360 had held back a whole generation of gamers with it's PS2 era DVD drive and split HDD/non HDD userbase.

  14. NozeDive

    hypothetically speaking

    Lets say this is legit - that some one bought a fully working 720 SDK box - would that give the homebrew / modding community any real advantage if this box (or its secrets) fell into their hands? I'd like to think this is some sort of finding the Holy Grail eureka moment, but I bet there are enough tricks up Micro$oft's sleeves to negate whatever they may learn.

    Speaking of next Gen consoles, the rumor is the PS3 has two unused GPUs in it, and that they can be "activated" with a software update push, should $ony decide to implement it. What's the deal with that? will we see that happen before the PS4 arrives?

    1. Fibbles

      Re: hypothetically speaking

      The PS3 has 8 SPE cores, only 6 of which are available to applications (games). One of the other cores is permanently assigned to running the OS. The last spare core has been deactivated to increase yields of the Cell processor.

      There isn't really anything for Sony to 'activate with a software push'. Technically it might be possible to unlock the 8th core on some PS3s but only a minority would work correctly. There'd not be much point though because no software dev is going to make use of an extra core that only a small percentage of PS3s have. It just wouldn't be worth the time and effort.

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