Rare Nintendo PlayStation Sells for Record-Breaking $360K

Gaming history was made last week when a rare Nintendo PlayStation prototype sold at auction for a record-breaking $360,000. The winning bidder spent more money on a single video game item than anyone has ever paid, beating a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. for the NES that sold for $100,150 in 2019.

The auctioned Nintendo PlayStation is “said to be the last remaining prototype of the alleged 200 that were forged from the failed joint-venture between Sony and Nintendo,” according to facilitator Heritage Auctions. “Reportedly, the other prototypes have since been destroyed,” the auction listing claimed.

The winning bidder was Pets.com founder and video game collector Greg McLemore, who outbid Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey. “It’s the single most expensive thing I’ve ever bought outside of a house,” McLemore told CNN.

Back before Sony made their own gaming history by launching the original PlayStation, they collaborated with Nintendo to create an answer to the Sega CD. In the original plan, Sony’s add-on would add a CD-ROM attachment to the SNES and allower for bigger and more complex games on Nintendo’s famous machine.

Of course, the Nintendo PlayStation was not meant to be, and that is why this rare prototype sold for such an epic price. To better understand its true value, you need to learn more about the wild history of the machine whose death led to the Sony PlayStation.