In 2009, THQ gave Queen Elizabeth the 2nd of England a 24 Karat golden Nintendo Wii console as part of a marketing move to promote a series of games for the console. Now, its new owner is auctioning it off to anyone with a few hundred thousand to spare.
Posted on eBay by "Donny" from the console database website Console Variations, the golden Wii was originally made to be given to Queen Elizabeth to promote the latest in THQ's line of minigame collections video games (a common genre for the console's shovelware) for the Wii. Unfortunately, it never made its way to the Queen due to strict policies on what can be sent to her, so the Wii stayed in THQ's offices until the company went bankrupt in December 2012. From there, the history is a bit foggy, but in 2017 Donny managed to buy the golden Wii from its previous owner and spoke to People Make Games in a video about his acquisition in 2019.
In an interview with Console Variations, Donny spoke about why he was selling his prized collector's item. He remarks that his family "was never very healthy financially," but he never wanted to sell it until he started talking with people about moving forward. "I’m the type who is attached to things in a way that I find it hard to let them go. So selling the Wii will also help me move forward in this respect." Donny hopes the system will be purchased by someone who will give it a good home and take care of it just as much as Donny has.
The golden Wii is currently for sale on eBay, with an asking price of $300,000.