The “Father of PlayStation” Has a Super Rare Nintendo PlayStation Prototype

It has become known that one of the creators of PlayStation and former executive director of Sony Computer Entertainment Ken Kutaragi is the owner of a rare prototype of the Nintendo PlayStation gaming console.

Image source: Julian Domanski, videogameschronicle

Photographer Julian Domanski met Kutaragi this month and revealed that he had gotten to hold the rare prototype of the gaming console. He also posted several photos of the Nintendo PlayStation on his X page.

«”I never thought I’d see something so rare, but today I got to hold a Nintendo PlayStation in my hands. The last one in existence was believed to have sold at auction for $300,000. It turns out the former CEO of SonyCEA has one in his closet,” Domanski wrote.

It is believed that there were only about 200 prototypes of the Nintendo PlayStation, a video game console developed in the early 1990s as part of a collaboration between Sony and Nintendo. The PlayStation was originally intended to be a companion to the Super Nintendo and improve performance. However, the collaboration between Sony and Nintendo was short-lived, and the PlayStation eventually went its own way, with Sony entering the video game console market on its own.

In 2020, a Nintendo PlayStation prototype, which at the time was believed to be the only surviving example, was sold at auction. Based on the photos, Kutaragi’s prototype dates back to a different phase of the production process, as the console has some differences from the one sold at auction. Kutaragi’s prototype has a bright blue PlayStation logo, while the auctioned console had a duller one. The button assignments are printed directly on the buttons, rather than above them, as was the case on the auctioned prototype. Kutaragi’s prototype is also noted to be in much better condition overall.