Given the fact that the PlayStation 4 retails for around £330, it seems just a smidgen barmy to pay 85K for one. But that’s exactly what happened when Sony auctioned the first of its limited edition retro grey consoles for charity.
A limited number of special edition consoles sporting a PSOne style design were released to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original PlayStation – a sentence which simultaneously makes us feel all nostalgic and frighteningly old at the same time. Special edition unit number 00001 was just auctioned off for charity over in Japan and managed to attract a winning bid ¥15,135,000, which works out as an eye-watering£86,000.
Sony is planning to match the winning bid before donating to charity, but a representative for the company revealed that the sale, which was conducted using Yahoo! Auctions, exceeded all expectations.
“We appreciate all who participated in the auction and are surprised at the highest bid price,” they said.
A whopping 12,300 of the retro grey models were released to celebrate the anniversary, priced at a modest £399. Interest in the limited edition consoles has been extremely high, despite the fact that the original PSOne was, let’s face it, an ugly grey box. It’s not just collectors who are interested, however – those looking for a quick buck have also got involved.
Sony used a lottery-based system to allocate consoles to interested parties, but quite a few of the Playstations are already selling for over £2000 on eBay, a price which is likely to increase as the consoles are snapped up.
The eighth-gen PS4 has been hugely popular since it was released at the end of 2013. So far it’s sold over 18.5 million units, making it the most successful console Sony has ever released in terms of pace of sales, and it’s fought off stiff competition from Microsoft’s Xbox One to become the console gamer’s machine of choice.
What’s the most you would pay for one of Sony’s grey exclusive boxes? Let us know in the comments below.
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