Incredibly rare SpaceWorld 2000 GameCube discovered

Decades ago, Nintendo used to host SpaceWorld events to showcase their upcoming games and hardware. For SpaceWorld 2000, Nintendo had the GameCube on display ahead of its 2001 release. Those display units were near identical to the final version of the GameCube, but there are some minor differences. Those changes, along with the fact that only 5 of these prototypes exist, makes them incredibly valuable to collectors.

While collectors thought these prototype units had been lost to time, it turns out at least one more was floating around, as it’s now in the hands of collector Console Variations. They shared the above picture on Twitter to prove that they’re the proud owner of a unit, making other collector’s incredibly jealous.

What makes these GameCube units different from the final version? Well, most importantly, they don’t actually function. These were made as display units for SpaceWorld 2000 to let fans get an up-close look at the hardware, but they can’t actually play GameCube games. Along with that, these units have a small, clear window that showcase the game disc, and they also lack the small depression on the ‘Open’ button.

How much is one of these units worth? We’ll have to wait and see what Console Variations can get, but there’s no doubt other collectors will cough up a pretty penny.