You can buy a normal PlayStation 4 videogame machine for about ¥40,000 ($340) in Japan, but someone is ready to pay ¥15.135 million, or about $129,000, for one.
It happened in an auction held by Sony Corp. unit Sony Computer Entertainment. In celebrating the 20th anniversary of the popular machine, Sony last year sold 12,300 retro-themed PlayStation 4 consoles in the original PlayStation’s gray scheme as opposed to the fourth generation’s usual black or white. The ¥49,980 special-edition units were each individually numbered, and Sony held an auction over the last weekend on the No. 00001 unit.
The official Yahoo! Auction page shows the auction closed with the final bid at ¥15.135 million after 1,585 bids for the lot that started from ¥1.
“We appreciate all who participated in the auction and are surprised at the highest bid price, which was higher than our expectations,” a Sony representative said.
Sony said it was contacting the auction winner to arrange for payment. Once the transaction is complete, the company said it would donate the price paid to charity plus a matching gift from the company.
Sony adopted a variety of selling channels for the limited-edition consoles, and in Japan it used a lottery-based preorder system. The auction site hosts unofficial bidding for other units of the 20th-anniversary models, often priced at around ¥100,000 or more.
The latest PlayStation generation has sold more than 18.5 million units since it was introduced in November 2013—the fastest pace for Sony. It has kept an edge over rivals such as Nintendo’s Wii U and Microsoft’s Xbox One.
Sony is trying to expand the reach of PlayStation with a TV streaming service and a virtual-reality headset called Project Morpheus.
It happened in an auction held by Sony Corp. unit Sony Computer Entertainment. In celebrating the 20th anniversary of the popular machine, Sony last year sold 12,300 retro-themed PlayStation 4 consoles in the original PlayStation’s gray scheme as opposed to the fourth generation’s usual black or white. The ¥49,980 special-edition units were each individually numbered, and Sony held an auction over the last weekend on the No. 00001 unit.
The official Yahoo! Auction page shows the auction closed with the final bid at ¥15.135 million after 1,585 bids for the lot that started from ¥1.
“We appreciate all who participated in the auction and are surprised at the highest bid price, which was higher than our expectations,” a Sony representative said.
Sony said it was contacting the auction winner to arrange for payment. Once the transaction is complete, the company said it would donate the price paid to charity plus a matching gift from the company.
Sony adopted a variety of selling channels for the limited-edition consoles, and in Japan it used a lottery-based preorder system. The auction site hosts unofficial bidding for other units of the 20th-anniversary models, often priced at around ¥100,000 or more.
The latest PlayStation generation has sold more than 18.5 million units since it was introduced in November 2013—the fastest pace for Sony. It has kept an edge over rivals such as Nintendo’s Wii U and Microsoft’s Xbox One.
Sony is trying to expand the reach of PlayStation with a TV streaming service and a virtual-reality headset called Project Morpheus.
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