The Queen's Golden Wii Is Up For Sale, If You Have A Spare $300k

Queen Elizabeth II's golden Nintendo Wii is up for sale on eBay for the low, low price of $300,000. Though the Queen never actually owned the golden console, news stories of its rejected delivery made it infamous to a certain subset of collectors, and if you're one of them, you can certainly put in a bid.

The golden Wii was a highly-questionable PR stunt from now-defunct game publisher THQ. As Eurogamer recalls, THQ decided to promote a mini-game collection for the Wii called Big Family Games by crafting a golden version of the hit gaming console and sending it to the Queen of the United Kingdom. Though the Queen rejected the delivery, news outlets picked up the story, giving the game the marketing boost the publisher wanted.

YouTube channel People Make Games told the story of the Queen's golden Wii back in 2019, tracking its current owner to a Dutch collector named Donny in the above video. In an interview with the exhaustive console collection database Consolevariations.com, Donny stated that his desire to move to a new living situation--coupled with stress from his day job--has inspired him to sell the Wii. The $300,000 price is pretty arbitrary: It's the sum that the collector imagines he'll need to buy a reasonably-sized place for himself. "I don't need more," he said. Based on the listing on Consolevariations.com, the console is indeed made out of 24 karat plated gold. Additionally, it uses the PAL region code, which you might expect, given its UK origins.