20th anniversary PS4: £85,000 Sony auction winner fails to pay for #00001 special edition

Sony Computer Entertainment's charity auction for the 20<sup>th Anniversary PlayStation 4 bearing the serial number #00001 has sadly failed, but Sony are still matching the winning bid and donating it to charity.

In a press release Sony announced that the highest bid of ¥15,135,000 (£85,000, $127,000) was not paid by the auction's winner, and that they have postponed plans to sell the console.

Their matched donation is joined by more money generated by their "PlayStation Love Tweet" campaign, with 1,156 tweets at 20 yen a piece generating an additional ¥23,120.

The console in question will be displayed at a showroom in Ginza, Tokyo from Saturday, 21 February.

After the auction was won in late January 2015, a Sony spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal: "We appreciate all who participated in the auction and are surprised at the highest bid price, which was higher than our expectations."

1,585 bids were made for the console

In December 2014, Sony sold in a variety of ways their limited run of 20th anniversary consoles, which match the colour scheme of Sony's original PlayStation. In the UK gamers could purchase a console either by going to a pop-up shop in London or by following a set of instructions online.

The console was sold at the usual retail price of £399, but quickly found its way onto eBay where bids shot up to hundreds of pounds.