Super Mario 64 Sets New World Record, Sold For $1.56 Million
SUPER MARIO 64 – After it was sold for $1.56 Million, a Super Mario 64 cartridge becomes the most expensive video game sold at an auction.
“It’s the first game to cost more than a million dollars”, said Dallas-based auction house, Heritage Auction. Since it launched, Super Mario 64 has arguably become one of the most popular games in existence.
Even after 25 years, people are still playing the game, especially when it comes to speed running. Additionally, collecting rare Pokemon cards had also become a profitable hobby with some cards going for over $399,000.
But, playing games and collecting them has become an entirely different hobby – an expensive one. With nostalgia driving the market, classic video games such as Super Mario and “The Legend of Zelda” have been sold for close to a million.
Recently, a Zelda game for the old Nintendo NES console was sold for $870,000. Meanwhile, Heritage Auctions, which handled both auctions, sold a 1986 Super Mario Bros cartridge for $660,000.
Donkey Kong (1981), a platform game, introduced Mario as the main character. Miyamoto, its creator, originally intended to use Popeye as the protagonist.
However, when he was unable to obtain the licensing rights, he created Mario instead. Miyamoto anticipated that the character would be unpopular and intended to use him only in cameo appearances; originally dubbed “Mr. Video,” he was renamed Mario after Mario Segale.
When Segale rented out one of his Warehouses in the US for Nintendo to continue development for their games, the gaming company had failed to pay their rent. As such, Segale personally came down to scold Nintendo’s president for their late payments.
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