Former Sonic boss stunned by vintage Sega Genesis auction price

The rivalry between Mario and Sonic dates back decades, but even one of Sonic’s creators was stunned to see the Blue Hedgehog seemingly chasing Mario into a whole new arena: that of exorbitantly priced video game auctions.

As noted by Eurogamer, Yuji naka, former head of Sega’s internal development team, Sonic Team, was stunned to see that a copy of 1991 Sonic the hedgehog for the Sega Genesis had sold at auction for a high price of $ 430.500. In his surprise, Naka on several occasions asked his Twitter followers if the auction price was a scam. He also seemed to express the hope that Sonic could legitimately win such a stratospheric sum, saying in a tweet, “I was wondering if it’s time for Sonic to peak.”

Naka had good reason to be skeptical that the cart actually received such a high rating. The Sonic The cart in question has been evaluated by the vintage video game rating and certification service Wata Games. Which one is currently facing controversy due to reported conflicts of interest and suggestions that it has colluded with Heritage Auctions to artificially inflate the retro games market (Wata Games and Heritage Auctions have denied this). However, this high turnover Sonic the hedgehog The auction was not managed by Heritage but by Goldin Auctions. No information about the buyer is known.

Wata previously rated a copy of super mario bros which sold for $ 114,000 in July, becoming the most expensive game ever to be auctioned, until another copy of the Wata-rated game sold for $ 660,000 in April, followed by a copy of THE Legend of Zelda sold for $ 870,000 in July. Some now believe that Wata and Heritage have colluded to make these unlikely prices possible.

Read more: YouTuber accuses million dollar retro game sales of scams

Naka apparently knew the prices achieved by some old cartridges featuring Sonic’s rival, and perhaps hoped Sonic could reach those same heights. At one point Naka tweeted, “I saw the news that Mario was sold at a high price recently, so I thought Sonic was also at a high price, but that’s different. I’m sorry.”

You don’t need to apologize, Naka-san. That the price of Sonic the ad is legitimate or the result of a scam, you can rest assured that Sonic is wiping the floor with Mario in the free memes market any day of the week. And this value is invaluable.