If there’s one console that looks better and better in hindsight, it’s the Nintendo GameCube. The collectors wanting to land their hands on a rare variant of the 24-year-old console (yes, you’re that old) will have to fork over six figures just to see those famous glowing LED lights of the Space World GameCube prototype first revealed at Nintendo’s famed trade show from 2000.
Collector Donny Fillerup from the console database Consolvariations first revealed he got his hands on the GameCube prototype in 2023, as our old friends at Kotaku reported. Notably, these devices were just shells of what Nintendo would finally debut more than a year later. As spotted by IGN, the collector now has an eBay listing for the Space World announcement model going for a staggering $100,000. That’s a lot of money for a console that doesn’t even play games, but it’s there for anybody wanting to own a piece of gaming history.
The console includes an LED light on the top panel of the disc tray. The tray actually opens to reveal the drive, though it won’t play any titles. The images from the eBay listing are interesting enough on their own. Donny Fillerup includes images of the bottom port hatches and even the internals. Consolvariation’s model included an early prototype GameCube controller that lacks the middle section where we normally find the start button. That controller isn’t part of the $100,000 listing.
The only place you can see the Space World prototype is in the Nintendo Museum in Kyoto, Japan. For context, Nintendo’s Space World was an annual conference hosted in Japan from 1989 to 2001. These trade shows were manic, though they were where, for decades, Nintendo first showed off its upcoming hardware, from the Nintendo 64 to the Game Boy Advance and, finally, the GameCube. The company stopped hosting the conference in 2001, instead moving all its big announcements to E3. The Electronic Entertainment Expo also went the way of the Dodo at the tail end of 2023.
The 2000 Space World was one of Nintendo’s most demo-filled conferences ever hosted. The showcase would include our first hints of what would become instant classics like Metroid Prime and Luigi’s Mansion. The show also included games that would never actually make it to GameCube, such as Rare titles like Conker and Banjo Kazooie and Perfect Dark. At this conference, Nintendo debuted a controversial Legend of Zelda demo video.
Donny Fillerup previously auctioned a golden Wii console for $36,000, originally commissioned by publisher THQ to be offered to the British royal family in Buckingham Palace. Speaking of expensive Nintendo consoles, speculation for Switch 2 pricing has been too all over the place for my liking. Some rumor mongers now point to an Italian retailer’s pre-sale listing price of 365 Euros, or around $380 USD, as evidence the console could cost $400. That same site likes to list games without a confirmed release date, like Grand Theft Auto VI and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, as up for preorder.
I wouldn’t trust any listings like this without a grain of salt. Earlier this month, analysts told IGN the console could range from $400 to $500. That would put it in line with other lower-end Steam Decks or Lenovo Legion Go S models running SteamOS, but it would be much higher than the Nintendo Switch’s $300 launch price in 2017.
Times change, and more capable tech will be more expensive. The original console was underpowered, even for its time so that Nintendo could sell one of the cheapest mainline devices on the market. With companies like Nintendo facing possible tariffs from the President Donald Trump administration, we should expect our tech to cost even more.
)
English (US) ·