A rare gold-plated Nintendo Wii gaming originally meant as a gift for Queen Elizabeth II is now being auctioned.
The one-of-its-kind Wii was produced by game developer THQ in 2009. It was meant as a promotion of the Big Family Games collection of mini-games. However, it could not scale Buckingham Palace's strict royal gift policy and therefore returned back to THQ, reports GizmoChina.
After THQ went into bankruptcy, the 24-karat gold-plated Wii finally found its way to the hands of Dutch collector, Don who is now putting the piece on auction.
!['Gold-plated Nintendo Wii' is again up for auction](https://data1.ibtimes.co.in/en/full/771913/gold-plated-nintendo-wii-again-auction.jpg?h=450&l=50&t=40)
This will be the second auction of the Wii after it was initially put on auction on eBay last October.
At that time, the asking price of $300,000 was flagged and the auctioning account was shut down. This time, the Goldin auction is going on smoothly until May 21.
The item is not mint-fresh and its utility as a gaming device is absent since Nintendo shut out the Wii Shop years ago.
It has signs of scattered gold chipping and will likely end as a collector's item inside a glass case. It is a genuinely unique device, unlike many limited-edition consoles, the report said.
It is a snapshot of the history of gaming and an audacious publicity stunt leveraging on the British Monarch, it added.
(With inputs from IANS)