Stop Everything ‘Cos the Queen’s Golden Nintendo Wii Is for Sale on eBay

Got a spare $300k?

What I expected to be a quiet news day has turned into quite the opposite, with hard-hitting headlines breaking that Queen Elizabeth II’s golden Nintendo Wii is up for sale on eBay.

At the moment, it's going for the low, low price of $US300,000.

Okay, let’s backup slightly and explain how this 24-karat gold-plated Nintendo Wii came about and why the Queen of England is involved.

The gold-plated Nintendo Wii was part of a ridiculous PR stunt from the game publisher THQ.

To promote the release of Big Family Games, a mini-game collection for the Wii, THQ created a golden version of the Nintendo console and sent it to the Queen Elizabeth II (because we all know she loves to play video games, right?).

Why? Well according to a THQ press release, “The royal family is arguably the most important family in the country, so we felt that they had to have a copy of the new game.”

“But we thought that Her Majesty the Queen wouldn’t want to play on any old console, so an extra special gold one was commissioned. We hope that she and the rest of the Royal Family enjoy the game!”

Okay…

Predictably, Queenie rejected the gift, but news outlets heard of the stunt and ran with the story, giving THQ the publicity they desperately wanted for the game.

All hail the golden Wii pic.twitter.com/diBHOEBOLt

— Zelda Gif World (@GifZelda) April 28, 2021

As for the Wii, it was sent back to the THQ office until they went bankrupt in 2012. From there, the trail went cold as to its whereabouts. (Ngl, I’m kinda sucked in to the mystery now.)

YouTube channel People Make Games tracked down the golden Wii to the Netherlands, where it is now in the possession of a collector named Donny.

For eight years Donny has been collecting Nintendo consoles in every colour, and in 2017 he had the opportunity to purchase the golden Wii.

The console has sat on a red cushion in a makeshift Nintendo museum in his house since then, but the time has now come for him to sell it.

In an interview with consolevariations.com, Donny revealed why he was choosing to sell the infamous Wii now.

“My family was never very healthy financially, so money was always needed. I want to be reasonable with buying a place for myself, and $US300,000 is the price that I came up with,” Donny told the site.

“I don’t need more. Also, this gives more people the opportunity to buy it.”

Okay, fully invested now. Someone buy this Wii so Donny can get a house!

No one has made an offer on the Wii yet, but there are 721 people watching the item as of writing this article.

I can't wait for Netflix to cover this in the next season of The Crown.

Header Image: don_cv via eBay