Where do people even get devkits from, without being qualified to have one? Even if you, say have friends from microsoft who have access to Xbox 360 Devkits... you couldn't just ask them to give you one lol. Same for any other company like sony or nintendo. Yet they are all over the place being sold on the internet... So, where do they come from? Also sorry if this is the wrong forum for this, but this looked like the best place to post it.
Well, many come from companies that broke (ie. Acclaim?) or companies that do not develop for that platform anymore (ie. PS1, PS2) and apparently some employees have a way to get these babies out of the building... It wouldn't surprise me (though it's kind of unlikely) that some are being sold by someone at the manufacturing facility where they make them. I say this is unlikely, since all units must have a Serial Number, and these are generally strictly audited.
A lot of the 360 kits came from companies throwing them out, and they were sent over to china to be 'destroyed' but were instead kept and sold on.
Is this really the case for all the dev-hardware that appears for sale on the net? Are they all from companies who don't develop any longer for the respective system? I was under the belief that these appliances were counting towards the company's asset so why would they just give them to employees who go on and sell them, couldn't they sell them themselves or give them back to MS?
Well, I'm sure they do count as company assets. I'm also certain most companies do not give these to the employees so they can sell them. Most likely some employees find ways to get these out of the company without being noticed... or something like that. Also, I remember reading something like: all dev hardware is licensed to companies, not sold. This would mean they are supposed to return it to the manufacturer (ie. Sony, MS, Nintendo) once it's not used anymore, or if the manufacturer asks for it. I can't say this is true, or true for all manufacturers... it's just something I read; can't remember when or where.
