Nintendo PlayStation Hybrid Has Sold For A Lot Of Money

The "Nintendo PlayStation" console, one of the rarest and most fabled gaming systems in history, has sold at auction, bringing in a huge sum of money. The system, which is a rare piece of history, is now significant for the sum it sold for as well as for being an interesting cultural creation.

The Heritage Auctions listing (via AresTechnica) shows that the console sold on Friday, March 6, for $300,000. The unspecified person who won the auction actually paid $380,000 with the "buyer's premium" included.

The $300,000 sale price is far and away the highest-ever price paid for a single gaming item. The previous record belonged to a sealed, unopened copy of Super Mario Bros. for the NES that sold in 2019 for $100,150, according to USGamer.

The identity of the winner was not revealed. Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey previously revealed himself to be the highest bidder at one point earlier in the auction period, but he did not win the auction, ultimately. Instead, the console was won by Greg McLemore, who plans to open a museum.

The Nintendo PlayStation was publicly unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1991, but Nintendo backed out of the arrangement with Sony and, at that very same event, announced it would be entering into a partnership with Philips, which would result in the infamous Philips CD-i (and its notorious Zelda titles). The 200 existing prototypes for the Nintendo PlayStation were said to be destroyed, and some things that should not have been forgotten were lost.

The falling out between Nintendo and Sony is reportedly part of what drove Sony to get into the gaming market to begin with. Both companies have enjoyed great success in gaming, with Sony's PS4 recently surpassing the Wii with more than 100 million in sales. Nintendo's newest console, the Switch, is also a sales juggernaut that keeps growing.