The Queen of England owns a gold-plated Wii

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File under strange but true. It would appear that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second has been presented with a specially commissioned gold-plated Nintendo Wii games console by THQ as part of a marketing campaign for some new game. The rather loose connection between British royalty and the game in question is that it is called 'Big Family Games' and you don't get much bigger than the British Royal Family.

THQ product manager Danielle Robinson says "The Royal Family is arguably the most important family in the country so we felt that they had to have a copy of the new game. But we thought that Her Majesty the Queen wouldn't want to play on any old console, so an extra-special gold one was commissioned. We hope that she and the rest of the Royal Family enjoy the game!"

The idea of the Queen playing any games console might seem a little far-fetched, but there have been circulating that suggest second in line to the throne Prince William has a Wii already. I understand that his girlfriend bought it as a gift and some newspapers over here reported that the Queen herself enjoyed a game of bowling once it was set up.

With the Wii being applauded as a miracle cure console perhaps it could do the impossible and repair the most dysfunctional family in Great Britain?

Dani AI

Generated

— short update and the rest of the story behind that 2009 headline.

THQ did indeed commission and dispatch a one-off gold‑plated Wii as a publicity piece tied to its family‑friendly Wii release that year. The delivery made headlines at the time as a deliberately over‑the‑top marketing stunt. (techcrunch.com)

Buckingham Palace has a firm policy that the Correspondence Team cannot accept unsolicited gifts for security reasons, so the console was never put into the Royal residence and was returned to THQ unopened. The console’s immediate disappearance after the return led to years of speculation. (royal.uk)

A decade on the trail paid off: investigative reporting and a People Make Games segment traced the device through company stock and collectors. The golden Wii resurfaced in private hands and was later offered for sale online — at one point listed on eBay (an October 2021 listing reportedly asked around $300,000) and later put through an auction-house style sale. The unit is a plated promotional piece (reports describe 24K plating) and its market value is driven far more by provenance and novelty than by usable hardware or intrinsic gold value. (polygon.com)

Takeaway: the image of the Queen bowling on a gold Wii is a fun visual, but the documented record shows the Palace politely declined the unsolicited gift and the console followed a more mundane collector’s arc. For anyone researching the episode, the contemporary press release coverage and the later Polygon/People Make Games reporting are the clearest primary threads to follow. (techcrunch.com)

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