There aren't many more intriguing slices of gaming history than the Nintendo PlayStation that was put up for auction last month. In the end, the highest bidder was Greg McLemore, owner of a number of American webshops and a man who has made a fortune in real estate. He outbid a number of other collectors, one of them being Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus VR. It's not something that Palmer was too happy about on Twitter.
The history of the console sounds like something from a movie. It was originally owned by Olaf Olafsson, former CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, who had one of the 200 prototypes, all of which were believed to have been obliterated following the collapse of a deal between Sony and Nintendo that would have seen the pair making sweet, sweet consoles together. In the end, Sony released its PlayStation some three years later, and the rest is history.
The console is widely suspected of having been a part of a bankruptcy auction from a company Olafsson was involved with, which explains how it ended up in hands of the now-former owner, Terry Diebold, who sold the console at auction. A rumour reported by Kotaku says that Diebold was offered $1.2 million before he put it on auction.
The sale was hosted by Heritage Auctions, which is also the source and owner of the images used.
According to Forbes, the Nintendo PlayStation will be a part of a permanent collection/museum that McLemore is establishing, with inventory that dates back more than 130 years.