A Sealed, Never-Opened Nintendo 64 Goes for $250,000

upstart writes:

A Sealed, Never-Opened Nintendo 64 Goes For $250,000:

A Sealed, Never-Opened Nintendo 64 Goes For $250,000 [...] - Here's What They Sold For In 1996

Can you really put a price on nostalgia? According to one eBay listing, yes, you can, and it's valued at a cool quarter of a million dollars - that is, if to you nostalgia takes the form of a factory-sealed, launch edition, Nintendo 64 game console. If that sounds about right, you're in good company. The Nintendo 64 continues to be well-loved for its memorable games, unusual controller design, and 3D graphics. But when the console launched in 1996 - in June in Japan, and in September in North America (via GameTyrant) - things weren't all fun and games for Nintendo.

The home entertainment company was up against fierce competition from other fifth-generation consoles, namely the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. These rival consoles both beat Nintendo's fifth generation foray to market, and they used CD drives to run their games while Nintendo 64's disc drive - the 64DD - was an add-on to the cartridge-based console and only ever released in Japan (via Giant Bomb). What's worse, when the Nintendo 64 finally did launch in the U.S., there were only two games available - "Super Mario 64" and "Pilotwings 64" - and only a dozen by end of the calendar year (via Archive64).

Despite the uphill battle, Nintendo had a hit on its hands. This was partially due to a price drop from $250 to $199, which helped the console sell 350,000 copies in the first three days[...] . It was a massive holiday hit, and things were just getting underway for this beloved console.

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