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Her Majesty The Queen’s golden Nintendo Wii is going on sale at an auction, and the bidding currently stands at $2,000.
The console, plated in twenty-four karat gold, was a gift—and, of course, a marketing ploy—from THQ. It was to celebrate the launch of Big Family Games, a collection of minigames.
Don’t start envisioning The Queen and her royal retinue strapping their wrists and whipping remotes to and fro, however. Buckingham Palace promptly returned the console to sender. I imagine it has been gilded with dust in a vault somewhere at THQ.
Goldin is auctioning the console (thanks, Eurogamer), and the description states that the machine and controller “exhibit minor handling wear.”
The filing also includes this message, from Danielle Robinson, THQ’s product manager at the time:
“BIG Family Games is the ultimate Wii game to get all family members, from grandparents to young children, playing together. 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!”
They didn’t.
