Nintendo PlayStation prototype sells for $360K
No, that is not a typo. This thing exists.
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A rare find.
A rare Nintendo PlayStation prototype just sold for a whopping $360,000 at auction. The device 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 Heritage Auctions, which sold the console. The other prototypes have reportedly been destroyed.
The unit that was sold still works, according to Heritage Auctions, and once belonged to Sony Interactive Entertainment founder Olaf Olafsson. Olafsson eventually left Sony to work at Advanta, then joined Time Warner, but reportedly left his Nintendo PlayStation prototype behind. Advanta soon filed for bankruptcy and began selling everything in its corporate office at auction, which included the console.
The Nintendo PlayStation (known then as the Play Station) was a collaboration between Nintendo and Sony in the late 1980s and early '90s. The companies struck a deal to forge the Super Disc format, as Sony wanted a way into the booming video games business. An add-on to the SNES would allow it to play disc-based games, in addition to music CDs, and a separate system made by Sony (the Nintendo PlayStation) would play both discs and cartridges.
But a day after Sony announced its partnership with Nintendo, Nintendo said it had struck a deal with Philips for a CD-based gaming platform. A few years later, Sony released the PlayStation.
The Nintendo PlayStation includes a CD-ROM drive, headphone port and controller with "Sony PlayStation" across the front. It also has a small screen on top that shows which music track is being played from a CD.
