Sealed Legend of Zelda Already Breaks $100k at Auction

When The Legend of Zelda was released for the NES back in 1986, it sold at retail for $49.99. A sealed copy of that game today has already broken past $100,000 in an auction that’s currently live.

You can view the online auction happening right now at Heritage Auctions where the current bid at the time of this writing is $110,000. That’s probably the equivalent of over 1 million Hyrulian rupees for a Wata 9.0 sealed copy of the original Legend of Zelda.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2014/03/18/13-awesomely-rare-nintendo-artifacts”]

“Truly, the term ‘grail’ only begins to scratch the surface of describing this game,” Heritage Auctions writes in the lot description. “Of all of the games we’ve offered in our auctions, this sealed early production copy of the first game in the groundbreaking Legend of Zelda series is no doubt the apotheosis of rarity, cultural significance, and collection centerpieces.”

Heritage Auctions says none of the copies of The Legend of Zelda it offered in the past can “even attempt to hold a candle to this one due to its incredibly rare variant that holds early production status.”

This variant copy of Zelda nicknamed the “NES R” was produced for just a few months in late 1987 before it was replaced by a “Rev-A” variant in 1988, according to Heritage Auctions.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2016/08/08/igns-top-10-zelda-games-of-all-time”]

“Only one other variant precedes the offered ‘NES R’ variant and that is the ‘NES TM’ variant, which is the true first production run,” the description continues. “However, it is widely believed that only a single sealed ‘NES TM’ example exists, and there is no telling whether or not that copy will ever come to market.”

All of that is to say that the copy of The Legend of Zelda in the Heritage Auctions auction is the earliest sealed copy of the game one can actually obtain.

This auction is set to end in two days and only time will tell how high the sale price goes from here.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/02/extremely-rare-nes-game-becomes-most-expensive-video-game-collectible”]

This copy’s auction bid of $110,000 is certainly nothing to scoff at, but elsewhere, Nintendo rarities have sold for much more. The Nintendo PlayStation prototype console sold for $360,000 in an auction held last year while an incredibly rare plastic-sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. for the NES sold for $660,000 back in April.

When that copy of Super Mario Bros. sold for over half a million dollars earlier this year, it became the most expensive price ever paid for a video game collectible.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. He loves The Legend of Zelda but can think of a lot of other things to spend over $100,000 on. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Upcoming Super Smash Bros. Melee Tournament Shatters Prize Pool Records

An upcoming Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament has broken a record in the game’s competitive scene for the largest prize pool. Smash Summit 11, hosted by Beyond the Summit, currently has a singles prize pool of over $140,000.

The tournament, which will run from July 15 to July 18, is the first in competitive Melee history to boast a prize pool of over $100,000. At the time of writing, the tournament’s singles prize pool is $140,686. Competitive Melee’s second-largest prize pool was doled out by Smash Summit 5 according to Esports Earnings, with a total of $83,758.

A vast majority of Smash Summit 11’s prize pool, 93%, was crowdfunded, according to the tournament’s website. However, that money wasn’t just donated to the game’s prize pool. Instead, fans were incentivized to throw cash at the event by turning them into votes for players. Fans could donate cash, but could also purchase merchandise or subscribe to the tournament’s Twitch channel for votes they could then put towards getting their favorite competitors into the tournament.

A long list of Melee’s top players will be participating in Smash Summit 11, including:

  • Nick Yingling
  • Egard “n0ne” Shelby
  • Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma
  • Jeffrey “Axe” Williamson
  • Joseph “Mang0” Marquez
  • Zachary “SFAT” Cordoni
  • Justin “Plup” McGrath

Smash Summit 11 will also be competitive Melee’s first major in-person tournament since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. While spectators will have to watch matches on the event’s Twitch channel, players will be sitting next to each other and playing for the first time since 2019. Competitive Melee has continued throughout the pandemic though, mostly thanks to a mod for the game called Slippi that added rollback netcode to the 20-year-old game.

Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out

Crowfall, A Fantasy PvP MMO, Is Now Available On PC

Crowfall, the new fantasy MMO from ArtCraft Entertainment, is now available for PC. The new MMO focuses on player-versus-player gameplay with constantly changing worlds in different campaigns, with different maps, politics, and rule sets.

With a heavy focus on PvP battles, both individual and large-scale, the game features a fast advancement curve allowing players to get competitive in hours. While the advancement system allows for numerous combinations between race, class, class promotion, and subclass disciplines that could provide deep gameplay, developer ArtCraft doesn’t want players to feel like they are just grinding to get to the endgame.

“Crowfall represents a new frontier of online gaming,” creative director J. Todd Coleman said in a press release. “It was designed to be a constantly changing, dynamic feudal world. The story of Crowfall will be written by the players. They will claim territory, build massive fortifications, lay siege to their neighbors, forge alliances and topple empires. Their deeds will become the history of this world.”

Coleman said that Crowfall is taking a different approach to the MMO genre, shortcutting the work needed by players to reach the endgame and that “the endgame is the game.” Crowfall is available now on PC and costs $40 USD, but it does not require a monthly subscription, allowing players to “buy now and play forever.”

Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out

Lords of the Rings Sets Reportedly Unsafe, Amazon Responds

Amazon Studios is denying a report that the set of its upcoming Lord of the Rings series is unsafe and called the claims “completely inaccurate,” Variety reports.

The New Zealand Herald reported on July 2 that at least three stunt performers on Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series had been seriously injured, with one case resulting in a $500,000 payment. The Herald also reported sources on the set saying they don’t feel Amazon is taking their concerns about safety standards seriously.

In March, stuntwoman Dayna Grant suffered a head injury on The Lord of the Rings set, which the Herald says was not reported to WorkSafe — New Zealand’s workplace safety regulatory body. Another injury requiring surgery was reportedly not disclosed to WorkSafe, either.

In a statement to Variety and the Herald, Amazon Studios said that their safety regulations comply with New Zealand’s standards.

“Amazon Studios takes the health, physical and emotional welfare of our cast and crew extremely seriously,” a spokesperson for Amazon Studios says. “As a top priority, the production team continues to be in full compliance with the mandated WorkSafe New Zealand Safety and Security government regulations. Any allegation or report that activities on set are unsafe or outside of regulations are completely inaccurate.”

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/01/13/lord-of-the-rings-amazon-series-plot-details-revealed”]

Variety reports that, according to a source close to production, Grant’s injury was recorded as a mild concussion which isn’t a “notifiable event” by WorkSafe’s regulations. WorkSafe classifies a “notifiable event” as an injury requiring a person to be admitted to a hospital for immediate treatment.

NZ Herald reports that Grant was diagnosed with an 8mm brain aneurysm, which the American Association of Neurological Surgeons classifies “should be seriously considered for treatment.”

Variety’s source states that Grant was not diagnosed with the brain aneurysm until June and had been cleared to work on other projects between then.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”slug=amazons-the-lord-of-the-rings-every-confirmed-actor&captions=true”]

Another stunt performer named Elissa Caldwell reportedly suffered an injury in February, which also wasn’t reported to WorkSafe until the Herald reported on it. The injury resulted in Amazon paying Caldwell $500,000 to return home and receive care, but was explicitly not an admission of guilt by Amazon.

Surrounding the whole situation are multiple reports of stunt performers feeling unsafe or unnecessarily pressured by a stunt supervisor. 

“He [the senior stunt worker] applies a weird kind of pressure which just makes you feel uncomfortable all the time,” one stunt worker told the Herald. Other examples include one stunt performer leaving production in March after injuring his rotator cuff, saying he was required to perform backflip stunts with an improperly rigged support wire system. Another stunt performer said a colleague tore a ligament, but the injury was not made public, and that “it’s a different league being hushed up” from normal injury rates on film sets.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/07/06/the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-a-unique-promise-nacon-connect-2021-video”]

Despite all this, the head security officer on the production, Willy Heatley, says the injury rate is low across the board.

“We have had 16,200 stuntperson days worked since we started production,” Heatley told the Herald. “That is an incredible amount. And our injury rate across all studios is 0.065 percent. Most of these injuries are common stunt-related sprains, bruises and muscle and soft tissue strains.”

Amazon’s Lord of the Rings project was one of 2020’s most prominent casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic, with production delayed early on in March last year. Production has reportedly been so long that not even a primary actor knows when filming for season one will finish.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.

Codemasters Leadership Departs Four Months After EA Acquisition

Codemasters’ CEO, Frank Sagnier, and CFO, Rashid Varachia, are departing from the company just four months after EA’s acquisition.

Don’t be alarmed, though, as EA told GamesIndustry.biz, which first reported the news, that their departures have “always been part of the plan.” However, their departure from Codemasters was sped up after EA acquired the company and integrated it into its pool of studios.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/11/19/dirt-5-review”]

“We are incredibly thankful to Frank and Rashid for everything they have done for Codemasters and Electronic Arts, and we all wish them the very best,” EA said in a statement. “We know the culture they have created and their innovative spirit will very much live on at the studio through their outstanding leadership team.”

Both Sagnier and Varachia will step down from Codemasters at the end of this month. GamesIndustry.biz reports that Codemasters will join the EA Sports umbrella currently led by Cam Weber.

Codemasters will be led by Senior Vice President of Product Development, Clive Moody, and Senior Vice President of Publishing, Jonathan Bunney.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”slug=best-racing-games-of-2020&captions=true”]

Codemasters is the studio behind games like Dirt 5, Project CARS, and the F1 series, and it was acquired by EA earlier this year for $1.2 billion. With this acquisition complete, EA aims to release a new racing game every year, although Codemasters will remain as an “independent group” within EA’s repertoire.

Codemasters’ next game will be F1 2021. It was announced back in April and is set to release on July 16. It will feature an all-new story mode that Codemasters calls “a proper journey.”

Check out our thoughts on last year’s F1 game in IGN’s F1 2020 review and then read our thoughts on Codemasters’ latest release in IGN’s Dirt 5 review.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Marvel’s Avengers Players Can Duplicate Heroes Later This Month, Cannot Be Toggled On Or Off

Developer Crystal Dynamics has confirmed that Marvel’s Avengers players on all platforms will be able to select multiple of the same hero later this month when the feature gets permanently added as an in-game option.

The game’s official Twitter account said this is in response to community feedback. Though a date has not been specified, Marvel’s Avengers players will soon be able to double up on heroes in multiplayer matchmaking. This means if your favorite (or highest-leveled) hero is Black Widow but she was picked at the character selection screen before you could choose her, you can still choose her. She won’t be greyed out once the feature is turned on.

Now Playing: Marvel’s Avengers’ Black Panther DLC Is Its Biggest Expansion Yet | Play For All 2021

Based on the language, however, it sounds as if players will be unable to toggle the duplication feature on and off. When reached for comment, a Square Enix representative clarified that the feature will be a permanent addition going forward and something players can’t change at will from now on.

“Due to community feedback, we’ll be permanently turning on the ability to play multiple of the same Hero in multiplayer and matchmaking later this month,” a Square representative said in an emailed statement to GameSpot. “This is not something that players are able to turn on or off–this is a system feature that will permanently be a part of the game going forward.”

The duplicate hero feature was introduced in April 2021 with Marvel’s Avengers’ Tachyon Anomaly event, which wrapped up on May 3. The LTE introduced some new missions and world events for players to participate in.

The reception has been mixed. Some players praised Crystal Dynamics on Twitter for making the feature permanent. Meanwhile, others suggested the ability to duplicate heroes should be a separate mode. And of course, plenty of people are asking when Spider-Man will get added to the roster.

Marvel’s Avengers is steadily approaching its one-year anniversary. Crystal Dynamics still has content planned for the action-adventure RPG, including the upcoming Black Panther DLC.

Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out