Last year, a long-lost prototype of the Xbox console exclusive running on PS3 came to light, courtesy of self-proclaimed former hacker PixelButts. Eight hours of footage was released showing the build being played, with only a couple of bugs. This footage is still available to view - Epic hasn’t attempted to take it down: Now, to celebrate 10 years since the build was created, PixelButts has released it onto the internet via archive.org. You can go download it yourself right now, though you’ll need a PS3 devkit to run it on. Epic Games previously confirmed the internal build was real, though never destined for public release. Instead, it was “a byproduct of Epic’s internal Unreal Engine 3 testing process which utilised both Gears and Unreal Tournament” and “never part of any actual product work for PlayStation 3”. This week, PixelButts announced the release of the build via Twitter, where he also said he would “not be your tech support” and “not be taking questions” (before answering several further questions). “This is an archive of the original data built by Epic Games on May 19th 2011 for Gears of War 3 for PS3 systems,” he wrote. “Originally created during an engine test, and leaked 10 years ago and remained unusable data while circulating between collectors and exchanging hands. “I was the first person to get this data working nine years later, and decided now that it’s time to release it on the 10th anniversary of this build being made (19th May 2021). To date, this is the only Epic-made data for a PS3 version of the game, as all others have been made with leaked source code.”
