Back in 2014, Sony held a contest in Japan with the prize being a limited edition 20th Anniversary PlayStation 4. But all the information of those who entered is now gone.

In order to enter, you had to have bought a PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 or a Vita TV (PlayStation TV, in the U.S.) between December 4th and January 15th. Upon doing so, you’d receive a calendar in the mail with a code on it, which you would use to enter the contest. Out of all the entries, 123 random codes would have been chosen as winners. The winners were chosen, but before they could be notified of winning, the information was inadvertently deleted. Sony did not explain how the information got deleted. They did say that they tried to save the data, but ultimately reached the conclusion that “recovery was technically impossible.”

Sony offered “deepest apologies for the trouble we have caused to those who entered the campaign.”

For those who still have the calendars, they can simply re-submit their code to re-enter. Those who don’t have the code anymore aren’t out of luck though. They can send Sony their hardware serial number and Sony can verify if the system was purchased during the eligible time period.

Outside of the data being lost, Sony also assured those who entered the contest that their personal information was not leaked.

My Opinion:

This is a boneheaded mistake from Sony but errors like that can happen. The bright side I can see from this is that those who had previously won the contest will never actually know that they were screwed.

Ignorance is bliss, my friends.

Jason Patrick is an Associate Writer at MONG. His PlayStation 3 recently met the Yellow Light of Death, so please have him in your thoughts. If you’d like, follow him on Twitter.