A new report reveals that Microsoft actually sent someone a prototype of the Xbox One two months before it even unveiled the console back in 2013. The story reveals how 25-year-old Jia Li from Miami ordered a new laptop from the Microsoft Store online and ended up with something he had never seen before.
Li told Business Insider that he noticed that the box had a security tape on it. He opened it and saw that the package contained what looked like an Xbox console. It had a zebra pattern on it which is a common practice to ensure that it’s harder to photograph prototypes.
The scribe explains how this came to be. Apparently, Microsoft stored prototypes of the Xbox One in a less secure part of its shipping facility to throw off its own employees because you would normally expect a prototype of a lucrative product like the Xbox to be under heavy security.
That’s how Li ended up with a prototype because his laptop was supposed to be shipped from the same facility, so perhaps the wrong shipping label got put on the box or some computer made a mistake that switched his laptop for an Xbox One prototype.
When Li opened the package he found the console, some papers, and international plugs but the box did not contain any controllers or Kinect cameras. He plugged it in and switched it on, the boot-up screen read “Kryptos,” which was one of the code names for this console.
The full story can be read over at the scribe, which mentions that Li just got in touch with Microsoft which quickly dispatched a representative to pick up the prototype from his home. As compensation, Microsoft gave him a new Xbox 360 and Kinect for free aside from the laptop he had actually ordered.