‘WATA Certified’ Copy Of Sonic The Hedgehog Sells For Record Price

A copy of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game for Sega Genesis has been sold for a record-breaking sale price of $430,500 USD. This isn’t just a new record for this Sonic game, either – it also makes it an “all-time” record sale for any Genesis title.

This graded game has been ‘WATA Certified’. As you might recall, WATA is one of the grading companies that has been previously under fire for allegedly playing the retro video game market. Just recently, for example, the co-founder was accused of selling the company’s games under a different alias on eBay.

Sonic the Hedgehog’s co-creator, Yuji Naka, even saw the latest sale himself – talking about the possibility of it being a “scam”:

Of course, many responses on social media were quick to link Karl Jobst’s video and follow-up stories about the graded games market in recent times. It’s not just Sonic we’re seeing this with – back in August, a copy of the original Super Mario Bros. on the NES sold for a record-breaking $2 million.

WATA previously shared the following statement with Nintendo Life in response to Karl Jobst’s accusations about “fraud and deception” in the retro games market:

“Wata Games is the trusted leader in collectible video game grading and we’re honored to play a key role in this booming industry that we are incredibly passionate about. We’re humbled by the support of our thousands of customers who trust us to provide accurate and transparent grading. The claims in this video are completely baseless and defamatory and it is unfortunate that Mr. Jobst did not contact us to give us the opportunity to correct him.”

You can learn more about the recent allegations in our previous stories.