December 4, 2014 - 13:23 AMT
Sony to sell retro-looking PlayStation4

Sony’s PlayStation is already 20 years old. To mark the occasion, the Japanese electronics maker said it will sell a commemorative version of its PlayStation4 console that sports a distinctively retro look, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The individually-numbered 123,000 PS4s being sold globally are painted in the same gray as the first console and also bear its original four-color logo. They will cost Y49,980 in Japan, $499 in the U.S. and EUR499 in Europe. Expecting robust demand, Sony said that customers in the U.S. and Japan can make lottery-based pre-orders at Sony’s official online store.

The PlayStation is unquestionably the world’s most popular game console right now, with the PS4′s sales far ahead of rivals consoles sold by Microsoft or Nintendo . But when the first PlayStation model debuted in 1994, the world questioned the electronics giant’s entry into the industry, the Journal says.

But now as the market leader, Sony is fighting against new forces coming into the established industry—free-to-play games that are quickly becoming popular for smartphone users. While accepting the challenge posed by these smartphone apps, Sony’s PlayStation team is expanding new frontiers, building up its PlayStation-centered eco-system such as Internet-based media streaming service PlayStation Vue and a virtual reality headset called Project Morpheus.

In creating Sony Computer Entertainment, originally a joint-venture of Sony Corp. and Sony Music Entertainment, Ken Kutaragi, the father of PlayStation 4, said he picked the firm’s name to represent his wish to blend computers and real-time entertainment and not be limited to video games that were seen as just toys for children.