An Indiana man was delighted when his grandma told him she had bought him a PlayStation 5 at a bargain price—until he saw it for himself.
Malachi, 26, took to Reddit to share a picture of the video-game console his grandmother, 69, purchased for him. “She told me she had gotten me one kinda out of the blue,” Malachi told Newsweek.
“It wasn’t my birthday or anything, but she thrift-shops and goes to a lot of rummage sales. I guess she assumed she had hit gold and gave it to me since I’m one of the younger grandkids.”
The PlayStation 5, or PS5 as it is more commonly known, is the most-popular video games console in the world. Data compiled by Statista showed over 5.23 million PS5 consoles have been sold worldwide, putting it ahead of the Nintendo DS and Switch as the world’s bestselling video games console.
Malachi, who asked for his last name to be omitted from this story, was therefore understandably delighted when his grandma informed him she had managed to get him one as a gift.
“I was excited because I don’t game much due to not having a newer console,” he said. “I didn’t ask her for it, but I’m not gonna say no to a new PS5.”
Malachi’s mood quickly changed, however, when his grandma handed over the PS5 and he discovered, to his horror, that it was actually something called a GS5.
The games on the system were markedly different. “It has arcade style games, think Super Mario and Sonic type games,” Malachi said. “It’s more similar to the PS1 and PS2,” he added.
Despite the disappointment, Malachi was able to see the funny side and didn’t hesitate to take a picture of his new “PS5” and share it online.
Posting a picture of the console to Reddit under the handle u/OkEscape7558, Malachi wrote: “My granny told me she got me a PS5 and some controllers.”
The post blew up, earning almost 100,000 upvotes and over 2,200 comments.
“How is that even legal?” one commenter wrote, while others came out in support of Malachi’s grandmother. “You hold your tongue and thank your sweet Grandma,” another wrote. “As far as she should be concerned, she got you a nice present that made their grandchild happy. If she’s on a fixed income you thank her harder and you take that fake ps5 home and you play it and enjoy it.”
One user wrote: “Infuriating for now but keep that thing. When she’s gone that’s going to be quite the memory.”
Malachi, to his credit, has been largely positive about his new GS5. “It wouldn’t be a bad game console if it had its own name and wasn’t a rip-off of PlayStation,” he said.
More important, Malachi never let on to grandma that it wasn’t a PS5. “I just said thank you and didn’t tell her it was a fake,” he said.
Reddit/u/OkEscape7558