This is news to me, and I'm a big Pokémon fan, so much so that I still have my Pokémon Red from back in the 90's for GAME BOY. It's the game that changed me and motivated me to build the very publication you are reading today.
This version of Pokémon Red is a prototype of the box before the artwork was finalised for English release, hence why it's using the Charizard from the Japanese version. It was promoted across a small amount of promotional material before its official release in 1998/1999, being found in the 1998 Sears catalogue, states PCStop on X.
If this prototype is indeed true, and I say that because things like this have been graded in the past to then soon be revealed that they are indeed fake, then this could be on of the rarest Pokémon video game-focused collectables in the world. This has been graded by WATA, who claim it's real, but again, they're a company with some shady history, so I do hope it is true.
The back of the prototype Pokémon Red isn't actually Pokémon Red, it's Mickey's Dangerous Chase on GAME BOY, as it was again, used as a prototype to show the Pokémon Company in person, so an older game in the printing production line was used for its back, to speed things up, or because of the fact they likely didn't finalise how the back of the box looked at the time of testing.
This collectable is owned by collector Mike DeRuggiero, who purchased this on eBay in 2019 and is now open to offers close to $500,000, according to PCStop. There's been no known previous sale of this before, so it comes down to who wants it bad enough and who can meet Mike's needs. With video game grading on the rise, there's no doubt this will be an intriguing piece for the wealthy collectors of this world.
