After the bidding was all said and done for the Super Nintendo PlayStation prototype, it sold for $360,000. This is well below what the sellers were hoping for, although they won the prototype at a bankruptcy auction for a mere $75. At one point, Palmer Lucky, the founder of Oculus, took part, but the sellers were hoping to get more money. Despite the fact that they only got $360,000 for this legendary piece of gaming memorabilia, it was still the most expensive piece ever sold. Nintendo and Sony originally had a partnership to create a disc-based console with their combined technology, but the two companies couldn’t come to terms and terminated their relationship. This is the origin of the Philips CD-i, which was a commercial flop and infamous for their terrible Zelda games.
Courtesy Engadget
One of the most interesting aspects of this auction is how the prototype came into the possession of Terry Diebold, the former owner of the system. It was originally owned by former Sony Computer Entertainment of America president Olaf Olafsson. Diebold won it in a bankruptcy auction, as previously stated, and didn’t even know what he owned until his son, Dan, through the help of Reddit, realized the prized possession the two possessed. In December the two were offered $1.2 million for the system, but turned it down, thinking they could get more for it.
$360,000 is still a hefty sum, but how much they must regret turning down the offer! The system includes a built-in CD-ROM for the SNES and represents Sony’s first attempt at creating a gaming console.