Update: The console has sold for $360,000, including the buyer's premium. That means the $1.2 million previously offered by a private buyer would have made much more sense. You live and learn, clearly.
Only one bid was made, which suggests that Palmer Lucky could be the winning bidder. We'll update you when we find out.
Original Story [Fri 14th Feb, 2020 10:45 GMT]: Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey is claiming to be the current high bidder for the mythical Nintendo Playstation console, which went up for auction this week.
Bidding started at $31,000, but now stands at a whopping $350,000, and Lucky is claiming on social media that his bid is currently in the lead. Given that the owners have already turned down an offer of $1.2 million, the price could rise dramatically.
When quizzed on Twitter why he wants to own this elusive piece of hardware so badly, Luckey replied:
Because I have the largest game console collection, and I am on a quest to digitize and preserve the history of physical videogames. Perfect VR will ensure the original experience lives on forever, but we need to keep these things alive and functional in the meanwhile.
Public availability is just a matter of time, I have been keeping things low key until then. I am preserving the original copies in the most advanced videogame storage facility ever constructed.
While it seems Luckey's intention is to purchase this unit and ensure that it is documented and preserved, rather than seeing it fall into someone's personal collection and be locked away forever, not everyone is thrilled at his altruistic approach:
Luckey – who has a personal fortune of around $730 million, so can certainly push that figure up higher if he needs to – is famous for founding Oculus VR, the company which spearheaded the recent Virtual Reality revival.
He sold the company to Facebook in 2014 for around $3 billion and was apparently fired from the firm in 2017 after it became clear that he had secretly supported Donald Trump in his run for the presidency.
He later founded Anduril Industries, which creates autonomous drones and sensors for military purposes.
[source videogameschronicle.com, via comics.ha.com]
Comments 79
I can see why people want to see it in a museum, but if Luckey says he'll make the actual experience itself available for everyone to enjoy through his own preservation efforts, surely that's better than staring at it in a glass cabinet? I know which i'd rather do as a fan of gaming tech.
Well he'd better watch out, cos right now I'm picking as many pears and peaches as I can find, aiming for 10,000,000,000 bells to snap this badboy up from under his nose.
It belongs in a museum!
He was fired for supporting the republican candidate in the election? Granted, the candidate was Trump but that is still insane.
@luke88
Apparently he provided $10,000 to some group, although facebook says that he wasn't fired for his political views. But yeah being fired for supporting a legitimate political party isn't right, whether you support or not.
@luke88 Yes, according to Palmer, he was fired for political reasons (donating to an anti-Hilary group).
That’s not the whole story, which may or may not involve Oculus losing a half billion in litigation with Zenimax. I guess it depends on if you think Luckey is a credible source for truth.
@Res462 @shaneoh I see, I did think the situation was probably more complicated. Thanks for the insights!
@luke88
Yeah I was wondering about it when I read that so I looked it up. Would have saved a lot of grief if the article had said he had "allegedly been fired for financially supporting trump's campaign."
@gcunit Best comment ever!!
@TAndvig I instantly tought the same thing ! What an excellent quote, my friend xD
@Robzilla Your kind words are lovely... BUT IT'S YOUR BELLS I NEED - SEND BELLS NOW!!!
Knowing what ebays like for scammers these days the winning bidder will probably open a returns request after 2 weeks and send back a SNES
@luke88 It is not like it was a normal candidate that normal sane non bigoted people support. Knowing that part of his history makes me not trust him at all to ever make any of his stuff public (At least not with a very high cost to the consumer. These kind of people are not friends to anyone beside their yacht owning buddies.
Is it true that there are actually game museums where you can't play games? Because we have one in Finland where all the games in display are available for playing. Well, apart from those in ''fake game shop' display.
what an absolute waste of money.. go and donate that money to a charity or something.. good lord people are sad on what they waste their money on.
@Res462 wasn’t the anti Hillary group a troll thing that posted memes spreading pizzagate?
@Glassneedles I don't remember the exact topics it was associated with, but something along those lines. I looked up the story because I thought there was more to it than was 'reported' here, and rather than clicking on the first article, I looked a little further.
@Dragonstar completely agree. The world has become an incredibly greedy place.
The lives that money could change is mind blowing
Luckey donated $10,000 to Nimble America, a group that posts racist and hate-filled memes (and support the Republican party). He comes across as an odorous individual. Fingers-crossed @gcunit wins it...
@Bondi_Surfer Luckey donated $10,000 to Nimble America, a group that posts racist and hate-filled memes (and support the Republican party).
That is the kinda person that needs gitmotized.
Too bad the item has a hidden reserve which is garbage to begin with as reserves should be disclosed in this day and age. It is probably well above that denied 1.2 million so I don't think anyone will be getting this anytime soon.
@Dragonstar You sound like the ignorant pile type people that claim, why should we try to save the trees when there are starving people in America. Because you forget that we can do multiple things with our money and time... OMG, that must be an amazing realization for you.
Museums aren't always the option. It'll just be locked away in a backroom somewhere.
It belongs in my room .... but I can sleep at the Museum as well.
I’m surprised a modder hasn’t already created a Nintendo Playstation using the internals of a real SNES and Playstation, so it plays both games. If a modder can create Gamecube Joycons from a Wavebird controller, I’m sure doing this thing is possible
@Averagewriter oh I know. I just thought it would be a good modding opportunity to create a ‘replica looking’ SNES Playstation that looked just like this thing, but had standard working SNES and PS1 internals so could be used to play games from both consoles. It would be like an alternative timeline. I’d give it a go, that is if I possessed any modding and electrical skills, which I do not!
Am I allowed to put a bid on higher than his and then be in the news, knowing that someone will beat my bid anyway? I am not a fan of this guy anyway vr is total twaddle! X x x x x
@gcunit you better set up that "Donation Lloyd" if you want people to give you their bells, though let's be honest here, you'll likely end up forking 95% of the bells yourself anyways :LUL:
You watch, as soon as that badly yellowing and repaired console sells. Nintendo and/or Sony will casually share pictures of the pristine examples that each of them hold in their vaults.
@Jayofmaya Trump is pedophile as well. In his ownwords on Epstein in 2002: “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” and “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side”. I wouldn’t trust my daughter with him as well
@Rebel81 It's a little more circumstantial than the other cases. However, I wouldn't be surprised. It's just he's been pretty careless about his philandering so never had him pegged as wanting the children. I don't know man. It's terrible that there are no proper investigations or protesting against these people. Imagine how much would be uncovered if we had a full on rebellion and raid of these people's homes and personal computers. Still hoping, one day.
Hmm, somehow this became a NintendoLife article about TDS.
Ha, well it looks like someone just got a ‘bargain’. I don’t think I could have turned down $1.2m for it if I were selling it, but then again if I were convinced it would sell for more than that taking it to auction makes sense. I’m guessing they didn’t have a reserve on it then?
Lesson learned? If someone offers you $1.2 million for an otherwise old piece of junk you found in your attic, you TAKE THE DAMN MONEY!!! I can't help but laugh at this guy for being so greedy.
That's unlucky 😂😂😂
Well to be fair it has no games of it's own 😉
I picture in my head a drunk millionaire, kabab in one hand, sat in his boxers and half squinting with one eye to focus on his monitor while he puts his highest bid in. Putting a winning bid in only to think wtf the following morning...
Now take millionaire out of that quote and it's how I got an autograph of the actor who played Billy in gremlins on eBay. To this day I have no idea why I bought it. Well apart from the raging session I had on absinth.
Still good money, but the seller won't be able to retire early now.
Stupid. Very stupid. Why so much money ? Nonsense. It is just piece of junk and a machine. No wonder, some people can be odd and strange. I will ignored it now and move on. Nonsense.
@Darlinfan Didn't think of it like that. Like if my family where held hostage and one of the demands was an autograph of Billy. I could deny ever buying one...
@Yorumi It's just a Super NES with a disc drive now, it may still be able to play music CD but PS1 functionality will not work as that came later. If Palmer Luckey could find a good modder for it, they could mod the OS of the system so the disc drive would be able to play all kind of disc based games like what the Polymega is doing.
@retro_player_22
"Like what Polymega is doing"
LOL
@Yogsoggoth If you think the other major political party in the states is not a “criminal organization”, go watch The Irishman on Netflix.
@Yorumi there won't be any legitimate software left for it and this doesn't have any dedicated hardware for the CD drive either, it is quite literally a SNES with a CD player on the bottom of it. It could play games through the CD drive using the SNES hardware I believe and a RAM cartridge but essentially it's a prototype dummy unit with no real functionality. If it was developed properly and resembled a retail unit then I could see why it would be so valuable
@Yorumi
The hardware mostly and the "history"
But mostly its a unique piece of hardware like the Sega Neptune, that's just something to have and boast about and sell on again.
@Yorumi
Like i said : just something to boast over and sell on later on.
It's a collectors thing
Like having Action 1 or Detective 27, it's not something to read but to have to boast about and be a centerpiece.
And the moral of this story is...
Stuff is only worth as much as the folk bidding I guess.
All I want to know is if you can play Night Trap on this thing.
@GrailUK aka “market demand”
Obviously. People seem to think that because they have something unique they can demand a gazillion dollars.
@Agriculture
/insert Dr. Evil with pinky in mouth meme here/
No thanx, already got one.
I remember reading that he scoffed at 1.2m...
Good call there mate. Glad it worked out for ya
@nimnio brilliant...
Literally killed me man.
Could not have said it better.
@Lordd_G indeed man. Indeed.
I heard that the seller mentions that he actually waste thousands taking trips around the world going to gaming conventions and expos with his son to expose this console and got nothing from it all and now he's trying to sell this in hoping to get back those money he lost for doing all those trips. If this is more than what he invest in those trips then he definitely got a lot more in return not to mention more taxes he had to give to the IRS.
Can't believe they turned down the 1.2 million in the first place...
Lol I called it
@DinnerAndWine
Lol that's someone who complains for living.
Anyone who thinks they have the right to tell another person how they should use there money is a sad individual.
Calling someone out on twitter and attempting to shame them because they want to own something rare just shows how small of a person they are.
Its a console and a sweet part of gaming history. Seems like this twitter user needs to start eating meat again maybe she wouldn't be so angry.
What gave the guy the idea that this thing is worth more than 1.2 mill if even that?
He's a total moron for blowing an opportunity like that.
It's an interesting part of gaming history. Otherwise, it's a display unit and nothing else. It's an SNES with a CD player attached. No games made for it, nothing special you can do with it.
Even as a part of history, it's no longer original as parts have been replaced with modern components, so if anything (to me) it's value is less because of it; like repainting over an old painting with modern paints and colours. Functionality didn't matter here, there's no software for it to play anyway and should have been left in it's original form, IMO.
Just read that this Palmer Luckey guy was fired from the company he founded just because he secretly supported Donald Trump in his run for the presidency. What's that all about! He can vote for whoever he damn well pleases.
So much for democracy.
@OorWullie Similar story to Steve Job I suppose, Job was fired from the company (Apple) he founded as well but was later reinstated.
Guess he got punked and will sting for the rest of his life and will be reminded of it every waking day.
@retro_player_22 not even close.....might want to stop hitting the koolaid here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag1o3koTLWM
A Norwegian offered the 1.2 millions. He thought it were too little and is he why auctioned it and it backfired hard. lol
Greed is good? Not this time.
@SwitchForce What's wrong with drinking Koolaid? They are kool.
@Darlinfan Sometimes people get carried away. Just because someone said that they would pay 1.2 million dollars doesn't mean they would follow through with it.
This is an interesting machine, but it's still just a SNES-CD in an all-in-one package. It's not some lost console with a bunch of unique never released games or ports of games.
The lesson learned here is that some people are willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for a brick to show off (1,2m or 320k, both are amounts I can hardly imagine), while others don't have the means to keep a roof over their family's head, even in countries that signed the human rights, where even after they made us believe the right is "affordable housing", not just housing, not being able to afford a house shouldn't exist.
@retro_player_22 Similar story to Steve Job I suppose, Job was fired from the company (Apple) he founded as well but was later reinstated.
This story one keeps telling oneself is drinking Koolaid. No connections to a idiot whom would've made 1.2mill now only had 360k to his idiot name. The 1.2mill buyer probably was the 360k buyer now. This is the idiot story of the millions.
@KitsuneNight couldn't agree more, I collect because it's about me owning it. I do like showing it off to my friends but the important thing is its mine... my precious 😁
@luke88 he is pro trump? EVEN BETTER.
@Darlinfan Yeah, the guy who just said 1.2 million created a sense of greed in the seller. Though I don't think the offer was serious, because then the guy who won this auction would have contacted him to sell it for 1.2 million.
@luke88 lol ..Trump was a FAR better presidential candidate than any Liberal Democratic candidate in the 2016 presidential race ,and he is certainly better than that clown Biden that is running now !Lol
@Rebel81 lol ..You comment about Trump is ridiculous..I much rather allow my daughter to be around Trump than that womanizer Billy boy ,that got that blowj*b in the Oval Office from a woman that WASN’T his wife ..Than had the audacity to lie about it ..
@DreamStar settle down, champ
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