Britain's Queen Elizabeth has been presented with a gold-plated games console. The 83-year-old monarch was given the exclusive Nintendo Wii by game developers THQ to commemorate the launch of their forthcoming "Big Family Games" collection, which she was also given a copy of.

A spokesperson for the THQ said: "Big Family Games is the ultimate Wii game to get all family members, from grandparents to young children, playing together."

"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!"

This is not the first time the queen - a keen internet user - has been given a technological gift. When President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle made their first visit to Buckingham Palace in April, they presented the monarch with an Apple iPod music and video player loaded with video footage and photographs of the queen's 2007 trip to America and a series of show tunes from Broadway musicals.