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The golden Nintendo Wii sent to Queen Elizabeth II as part of a marketing stunt appears to be up for sale.
A listing on auction site Goldin (opens in new tab) (via Eurogamer (opens in new tab)), offers a “Nintendo Wii One-of-a-kind Gold-Plated console bundle commissioned for Queen Elizabeth,” with the current bid sitting at $2,000.
The story of the Golden Wii has been relatively well chronicled. You can check out a longer version of the story in the video below, but the short version is that in 2009, now-defunct publisher THQ released ‘Big Family Games’, a title somewhat similar to Wii sports. As part of a marketing campaign for the game, the publisher decided that it should send a copy to the biggest, most high-profile family it could think of – the Royal Family – but that the royals’ taste for luxury would mean that the console they’d need to play it on should be golden.
While the console was sent to Buckingham Palace, security there is understandably pretty tight, and the Golden Wii was sent back to THQ. The company went bankrupt in 2012, however, and the Golden Wii was lost until 2017, when it re-emerged in the hands of a collector. Since then, it’s passed to a new owner, who has now put it up for sale once again.
While the Golden Wii certainly seems to be legit from a distance, its seller doesn’t seem totally convinced. A contact at THQ couldn’t verify the serial number of the console, and a jeweler was unable to test the gold plating because of the plastic it sits on top of. In the end, the seller says they’re “very confident” that this is the real deal, but if you’re hoping to snag yourself a piece of gaming history, it’s always worth considering that there might be a second Golden Wii out there somewhere.
If anyone ever makes a new golden Nintendo console, here are the best Switch games they could play on it.
