Nintendo Play Station will go up for auction in February for the first time in history
One of the best known stories in the world of video games is the famous console developed by Nintendo and Sony. It was a version of the Super Nintendo with a CD-ROM reader that never made it to the market. The console will go up for auction next February at Heritage Auctions. Remember that the owner of this console in the past has rejected millionaire offers.
For those unfamiliar with the story, Sony and Nintendo developed a console with a CD drive. The Japanese company ultimately abandoned the project in 1991 and decided to continue focusing on cartridges. Sony, frustrated by this, decided to develop its own PlayStation console, launching it in 1994, which became one of the best-selling consoles of all time.
The mythical console developed by Sony and Nintendo is auctioned
Terry Diebold, an anonymous person, bought this prototype in 2009 at an auction for items owned by a former Sony executive that had been abandoned. At this point Diebold didn't have the best idea what he was holding. It was his son, in 2015, who discovered the abandoned console in the attic of his house and when he investigated, he discovered that it was a jewel.
Historians of the world of video games and collectors have tried to buy it with no luck. And is that Diebold and his son have become famous and have traveled around the world with the Nintendo Play Station. After many travels and attending conferences and exhibitions, he has decided to sell the console.
Diebold told Kotaku in an email that he "can't keep losing money." "I've put so much work into this, traveling with the prototype, and we haven't done anything about it. Every trip we've taken with it has cost us money out of our own pockets."
Heritage, which is billed as the "world's largest collectibles auction house," began selling video games in January this year. They have auctioned a large number of games with astronomical prices. They have sold sealed copies of The Legend of Zelda or Bubble Bobble for $ 20.000 each. They have also sold an immaculate Donkey Kong 3 for $ 30.000. The highest figure has been for the first copy of Mega Man, which reached $ 75.000.
Video game collecting on the rise
Typically, comics and coins were auctioned, highly valued objects, but the video game industry is gaining momentum. A sealed copy of Super Mario Bros was recently sold for more than $ 100.000 to an investment group including the president of Heritage Auctions. In October someone paid more than a million dollars for a package of 40 games.
The decision to auction the Nintendo Play Station is logical, since there are no precedents. Diebold says they would have rejected a $ 1.2 million offer from a Norwegian. He also says that after paying the taxes and outstanding debts, the little money that remains, he will distribute it with his son equally.
Heritage Auctions will put it up for auction online on February 27 and will have no reserve price. Valarie McLeckie, Director of Video Games at Heritage said that "it will be sold for sure and it will be the market that determines the value." He also adds that "in this particular article, since it has never been sold at a public auction, there is really no way to quantify it"
