Last month, an ultra-rare prototype of the unreleased 'Nintendo PlayStation' was put up for auction. Now the highly-sought after console, which was responsible for bringing Sony into the video game industry, has sold for $360,000 through Heritage Auctions. The unit that sold is currently the only 'Nintendo PlayStation' known to exist, making it one of the most valuable video game consoles in existence.
It's not clear who the new owner of the console is, but the previous owners previously revealed to Engadget that it was bought for $75 at a bankruptcy auction. They placed the console in their attic because they had no idea what it was, and were later told by their son it had something to do with the abandoned SNES add-on. The unit surprisingly still works, but there is no available software specifically designed for the platform. As Vice points out, the 'Nintendo PlayStation' is now the highest-priced video game console ever, far eclipsing the sealed first-run copy of the original NES that sold in a private auction in 2019.
The “Nintendo PlayStation” prototype was developed as part of a potential partnership between Nintendo and Sony to play both SNES cartridges and CD-based games: https://t.co/IsgJKh4PIt pic.twitter.com/0JhJiZ2lfH
The prototype console was one of less than 200 units produced, originally intended to be a CD-ROM based add-on for the Super NES. Sony initially announced the project at the 1991 Consumer Electronics Show, but Nintendo announced a partnership with Philips the very next day. That collaboration resulted in the release of the infamously bad CD-i from Philips and Nintendo, while Sony made the decision to work on the original PlayStation in response to being left in the cold.
