A mistake on Sony's end has erased the list of winners in a recently-held contest in Japan.

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Japanese customers who purchased a PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, or Vita TV between December 4 and January 15 had access to a calendar with a unique code attached that, once entered in, would enter the user to win a 20th Anniversary Edition PlayStation 4.Sony has issued an apology and confirmed that all of the information has been lost without any chance for recovery. No explanation as to how the information was lost is known, but Sony reassures that customer information has not been compromised as a result.In order to reconcile the situation, Sony is allowing people to re-enter the contest by either entering in the unique code received earlier this year or via a slighly longer approach involving the hardware serial number and additional information.To celebrate 20 years of PlayStation, Sony announced the special Anniversary Edition PS4 in December 2014 . The stock was limited to 12,300 units, and demand for the limited edition console became so great that one buyer even paid $20,000 for one online Read IGN's analysis of the PlayStation 4's first year to learn more about Sony's latest console.

Cassidee is a freelance writer for various outlets around the web. You can chat with her about all things geeky on Twitter