Microsoft Accidentally Shipped an Xbox One to Random Kid in Miami Months Before It Was Even Announced

3-years-ago back in 2013, a seemingly random customer by the name of Jia-Li hopped on Microsoft’s E-commerce site and ordered a $500 laptop to his Miami apartment. When the package arrived, the size and weight looked a bit off, but he was in for the shock of a lifetime when he opened the box and discovered an unreleased, unannounced Xbox One. Top secret level shit. He received the phantom console more than 8 months before it was to receive it’s official public release.

The Xbox one was cloaked in zebra colored tape, a tactic frequently used in the automotive industry to break up a products lines and make it more difficult to photograph. How did this happen? Somehow in the frantic frenzy of running a 100,000 person hardware and software titan, someone fucked up and shipped a top secret prototype to some random kid in Miami, basically. Microsoft has had other leaks in the past including their four year product roadmap for Xbox, Cortana (their Siri competitor), and the Xbox One S.

Inside the box there were tons of international wires and some documentation, Li plugged it to his TV (Obviously) and saw the internal codename for the Xbox One, “Kryptos”

It turns out that the Xbox One got shipped to Li because it was being kept out in the open at Microsoft to try and trick lower level employees into thinking it wasn’t top secret, this was during the heated console wars between Microsoft and Sony and employee espionage was a serious concern.

Eventually Li made contact with someone at Microsoft, and they arranged a hostage deal. A Microsoft rep came to his house, confiscated the top secret Xbox One, and gave him an Xbox 360 and Kinect, he also got the laptop he originally ordered.