Sometimes a PR stunt spirals out of control long after it should have faded from the public consciousness. That's what appears to have happened in the case of a golden Nintendo Wii, commissioned by now-defunct publisher THQ back in 2009. The console was intended for the Queen of England, never made it to its intended destination, and was left shrouded in mystery until a few years ago.
The console was designed as a publicity stunt for THQ's title Big Family Games, a Wii Sports knockoff aiming to capitalize on the explosive popularity of its first-party counterpart. Hearing reports that Queen Elizabeth II herself was a self-confessed fan of Wii Bowling, the publisher commissioned the creation of a 24-karat gold-plated console for Her Majesty and sent it off with a copy of Big Family Games, no doubt hoping to spark a media frenzy that would keep their struggling business afloat.
Unfortunately, the Wii fit for a queen never even made it inside Buckingham Palace, as gifts via correspondence are generally not accepted by the Royal Family for understandable security reasons. THQ was eventually acquired by Nordic Games, and the whereabouts of the golden Wii seemed lost until Chris Bratt of "People Make Games" managed to track it down to a Dutch collector named Donny Fillerup, one of the founders of Consolevariations.com. Fillerup has looked after the console since 2017, but is now putting it up for auction on eBay, citing a desire to "[move] on with life."
The Royal Wii is not cheap, though: Fillerup has listed the item for $300,000, so any hopeful connoisseurs of one-of-a-kind video game hardware will need to dig deep to come up with the funds to add this one to their collection. Fillerup stated that he hopes the system "goes to a good home," ideally a museum or another careful enthusiast, though others have suggested bombarding Buckingham Palace with messages to see if the Queen is interested in buying back the console intended for her 12 years after its initial refusal.
It's truly a colossal amount of money, but gamers have been known to spend a lot on other things. Even beyond the hundreds of dollars a new console or device might set them back, many fans are happy paying thousands for lifelike collectible statues and figurines of their favorite characters, like Mads Mikkelsen's spell as Cliff Unger in Death Stranding, and sometimes even spend the same amount on weapon skins and the like in-game.
In any case, the minds behind the marketing stunt will hopefully be set at ease knowing that their priceless heirloom has been looked after so well for the last few years. And perhaps, if any ex-THQ employees have $300,000 kicking about, they could even try and bring their gold-plated darling home for old time's sake.
Source: Consolevariations.com, eBay, People Make Games/YouTube