It might be an understatement to say that the launch of Sony’s 20th Anniversary Edition PlayStation 4 console has been a bit of a mess. Only 12,300 consoles were produced and each region can set their own distribution rules for the system. In Spain, Sony will auction off their allotment of consoles with the proceeds going to charity. And according to Kotaku UK, 94 Anniversary Edition consoles were sold this weekend at a small “pop-up shop” for £19.94 each (about $31).
However, things worked a bit differently in America. A good portion of North America’s allotment were handed out to attendees of last weekend’s PlayStation Experience at random. That makes perfect sense. Sony should be rewarding their most fervent fans with a Limited Edition console. And a random lottery is the most fair system. However, the remaining stock were sold online with no warning through a website that couldn’t handle the load. There was no lottery and it was first come, first serve, and hope the server doesn’t crash. Naturally, this has lead to insane bidding wars over at eBay.
Over on the auction site, 20th Anniversary Edition PS4 consoles are selling for as much as $20,000. That’s the most ridiculous ending bid, but other bidders shelled out between $2,000 and $15,000 to own a piece of PlayStation history.
Actually, the most ridiculous thing might be that what each of these bidders are actually buying are email confirmations from Sony for a 20th Anniversary Edition “Pre-Order Receipt.” The actual consoles aren’t available for shipping just yet.
