Yuji Naka, the head of the original creative team behind Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog, has expressed disbelief after a copy of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game for Sega Genesis sold for a record-breaking sale price of $430,500. The shocking bargain is the latest profitability auction graded by controversial quality assessment service Wata, as its previous "Wata Certified" title was an original Super Mario Bros. cartridge in an unopened box sold online for a staggering $2 million earlier this summer, shattering a world record and quaking the retro video game market once more.
Inflation in the retro video game market began earlier this year after a string of eye-opening auctions for vintage games were made at Heritage Auctions and graded by Wata, starting with an unopened copy of Super Mario Bros. that was sold for over $310,000. What followed however was an investigation by a journalist that claimed video game auctions were underpinned by fraud, with Heritage Auctions and grading company Wata allegedly leading a fraud operation to inflate the prices of old video game cartridges for an increased profit.
Naka took to Twitter after being stunned to see that a copy of 1991’s Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis had sold at an auction for $430,000. He responded to the sale by questioning if the auctioned price was a scam and asked his followers repeatedly to assure him. While it's well known that Nintendo and Sega had a harsh rivalry in the 80s and 90s, and their respective games would often negatively reference each other, Naka expressed aspiration seeing Sonic The Hedgehog being auctioned off for such an immense price. “I wondered if it was time for Sonic to reach a high,” Naka said, surprised to see the hedgehog reaching an all-time peak with Mario, which had recently been sold for a groundbreaking $2 million. This pridefulness however concluded as followers pointed out that it was possibly another fraud auction by Wata, flocking to link the investigation on the social media post.
Before Super Mario Bros was bought for a massive sum this month, Heritage Auctions also sold Super Mario 64 for a lofty $1.5 million in July, after a high rating on the WataScale, which is used to measure the value of a video game copy at an auction. Priorly, an original, early production NES cartridge of the first Legend of Zelda was also sold during the same month for $870K. After continuous world records, some believed Wata and Heritage colluded to make these unlikely prices possible, which was alleged to be true after an uncovering video claimed that both parties had been fabricating the inflation value of vintage gaming cartridges.
While the retro video game market has skyrocketed and continues to upsurge, Yuji Naka's skepticism about Sonic The Hedgehog's auction being fraudulent is unerring and has shed light on auction allegations. For Heritage Auctions and Wata's demeanor behavior, however, it is unsure if it will come to an end any time soon, but more headlines and record-breaking auctions are expected to follow.
Source: Yuji Naka/Twitter
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September 23, 2021 at 02:46AM
