It was the prototype console that would inexorably change the future of video games without ever going on sale, and now it’ll finally be up for grabs.
The legendary first Sony PlayStation console was made for Nintendo in the early 1990s and featured a cartridge slot for NES games and a CD-ROM drive for the next-generation of Nintendo games.
Of course, the pair could not agree on a strategy for releasing the system and plans were scrapped. Sony then took most of the technology developed for the PlayStation and eventually launched its own console, altering the course of gaming history forever.
Now, what’s thought to be the last remaining console of the 200-300 originally prototyped is going up for auction next year, following years of its owners taking it around the globe to showcase to diehard gamers. The system is in working order, although it only plays SNES cartridges.
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The owner Terry Diebold, who acquired the console when he won an online bankruptcy auction of a Sony employee for $75, can expect to earn well over $1 million from the auction (via Kotaku). He’d already turned down an offer of $1.2m for the console, so the auction for the item of gaming history is likely to bring in in excess of that figure.
Diebold, who exchanged emails with Kotaku, said that touring the classic gaming expos was actually costing the family money.
“I can’t keep losing money,” Diebold told Kotaku in an email. “I’ve put a lot of work into this by traveling with it and we have made nothing on it. Every trip that we… have taken with it has cost us money out of pocket.”
The company handling the auction is Heritage Auctions, which earlier this year oversaw the sale of a sealed edition of the original Mega Man for $75,000. The auction takes place on January 7.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
