The Pippin, Apple’s $248 Million disaster that nearly killed Bandai | Forgotten Consoles

Summary

Background and Promise

In the 1990s, struggling Apple began licensing Mac OS to other manufacturers. Bandai, meanwhile, had repeatedly failed to establish itself in the console market. It saw a Mac-based CD-ROM machine as a chance to combine its popular Japanese franchises with inexpensive software.

Apple announced the Pippin platform in 1994, with Bandai as its first licensee. Bandai would build and sell the hardware, while Apple supplied the operating system and architecture. The device was promoted as a versatile multimedia machine: a game console, computer-like device, educational platform, karaoke system, and internet gateway.

Delays and Launch

Early testers wanted internet access, prompting a redesign to add a modem. Apple and Bandai also made increasingly bold claims about performance, software support, and sales, promising hundreds of developers and up to 130 launch programs, including at least 40 games. Much of that support never materialized.

Apple withdrew from manufacturing shortly before release, leaving Bandai to make an unfavorable production deal with Mitsubishi. The Japanese Pippin Atmark launched in 1996 at about $500. Units had to be ordered and manufactured on demand rather than stocked in stores, and the product’s unclear purpose and baffling advertising made it difficult for customers to understand.

Games and Software

The launch lineup was small, and many games looked amateurish compared with PlayStation, Saturn, and Nintendo titles. The Pippin lacked a dedicated graphics chip, and its processor could not make up for that shortcoming. Its controller and trackball were also poorly suited to Mac games designed for a mouse and keyboard.

The Pippin’s more compelling programs were non-gaming titles, including Anime Designer: Dragon Ball Z, digital encyclopedias, the video editor Cine War, cooking software, and educational titles. This was closer to Bandai’s original multimedia-computer concept than the game-console identity Apple pushed.

Competition and Collapse

The Nintendo 64 launched at roughly a third of the Pippin’s price, while the PlayStation was gaining momentum. The US Pippin @World followed in 1996 for $599, but had poor distribution and similarly weak sales.

Bandai later considered a more capable Pippin 2, but Steve Jobs’s return to Apple led to the cancellation of the Macintosh clone program—and the Pippin 2 with it. Bandai officially abandoned the Pippin in 1998 after selling only about 42,000 units, far short of its first-year target of roughly 550,000. A former vice president put the loss at 27 billion yen—about $248 million at the time. Licensing partner Katz Media also went bankrupt after committing to distribute the system.

What Followed

Bandai survived in part thanks to the global success of Tamagotchi. It later found success in games with the WonderSwan and merged with Namco in 2006.

The video argues that the Pippin’s basic idea had potential but arrived too early: internet access was costly and limited, DVDs had not yet become standard, and the public could not easily make sense of a product trying to be a computer, console, and internet device at once.

People and Sources Mentioned

Steve Jobs; Michael Spindler; Bandai president Makoto Yamashina; Sega president Hayao Nakayama; Pippin sales executive Masaru Kawaguchi; Gunpei Yokoi; Bungie; Edge magazine; and the Japanese TV documentary segment The Worst Selling Console in History. No individual gamers are featured.