The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 1996–1997
Bandai Pippin: $600 Apple console, 42,000 sold, $214M written off
Apple licensed Pippin to Bandai at $599 in 1996 — 42,000 sold against 50,000 unsold. Bandai wrote off $214M; Jobs buried the platform in 1997.
Bandai · Apple · 1996-03
What happened
Bandai launched the Pippin Atmark in Japan on March 28, 1996 — an Apple-licensed, Mac-based console priced at the equivalent of $700 — and the Pippin @World in the United States that December at $599, positioned against the cheaper PlayStation and Nintendo 64 with a fraction of their game libraries.
Japan bought about 30,000 units and the United States about 12,000. Bandai wrote off $214M for the year to March 1997 and was left holding 50,000 unsold machines; Steve Jobs ended the platform on his return to Apple.
A console with no games and a computer with no keyboard — priced above both.
Why it happened
- Launched Mar 1996 at $599-700; 42,000 sold, 50,000 unsold; Bandai wrote off $214M; about 21 titles against PlayStation's hundreds
- Neither console nor computer — the identity crisis priced it out of both shelves at once
- The Apple Jack controller's boomerang trackball shipped the confusion in the hand
The lesson
A platform is a promise about software. Pippin shipped the hardware and left the promise empty — the licence fee bought Apple's logo, not a reason to own one.
Sources
- Heise — 30 years ago: Apple's console flop Pippin is released
- Digital Trends — From the Pippin to the present: Apple's longest detour into gaming
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