It's incredibly difficult to get one off the bat, some sites and publications spend literally years trying to obtain a single debug unit. Basically you have to be an established name before you can even dream of getting hold of one. That, or pay an unholy amount of money on eBay. Generally you don't need one unless you're interested in reviewing games a fair bit pre-release but as I said, you need to be established.

I've been offered early reviews on a few occasions with the added question of "you have a review/dev kit, right?" Had to sheepishly turn them down. The cynic inside me thinks they knew the answer before the question was asked, but asking allows them to seem like a nice PR agent.

I pretty much gave up on it. You rarely MUST have a dev kit to do early reviews, and getting them is an incredible hassle, as stated above.

Dev kits/debugs are mainly required for long lead time print reviews and previews - though it's possible in some cases to write for print magazines without having access to the gear. As someone who contributes regularly to several large print outlets, I've had a hell of a time attempting to obtain debug consoles. Even with killer contacts and having been on "the lists" for some time, nothing has panned out yet. That may change, but I just wanted to echo how damn near impossible it is to get those things.
 

Your best bet it to try to score early copies of PSP "test" UMDs with final review code or DS Roms with final review builds from PR contacts and publishers. These will run on normal PSP and DS systems (Note: they don't work with the DSi). They're not easy to come by either, but you have a much better chance of obtaining one than a debug kit.

Sorry to necro the thread, but I had a lot of inexplicable luck with getting dev kit access very early in my career so I might have helpful advice.

For a system that's been on the market for a few years, you may see dev kits turn up on ebay. How much they sell for depends on how popular the system is. For awhile a few years ago you could get GameCube dev kits off ebay for around $60. 360 dev kits have been spotted on ebay in the past, though I obtained mine through other channels.

Strategy guide companies and similar contractors usually have dev kits on hand. If you go to work for one, you may find yourself being assigned a dev kit while you work on particular projects. Of course, strategy guide work won't leave you with much spare time for writing previews or reviews....

For the PSP system, a modded system does everything a dev kit would, only better. Microsoft has also been very good about getting lots of dev kits out to press, you can sometimes score one just by proving your worth to a site. I have acquaintances working for volunteer sites who have acquired 360 dev kits as they work their way up the chain.

All told, though, dev kits seem to be less of a necessity for getting work as the years pass. More publishers now send out retail copies early instead of debug code. For PS3, it's not unusual for preview code pressings to be compatible with retail machines, since PS3 dev kits are known to be extremely rare.

Thanks everyone. Sorry for the late reply but I haven't really been on Gameleon in a while.