Apple Bandai Pippin
Developer: Apple and Bandai
Year Released: 1995
Generation: 5th
The Apple Bandai Pippin was a multimedia technology console, created by Apple and Bandai. Bandai was responsible for manufacturing and marketing the device, while Apple absorbed all research costs, collecting royalties for every Pippin sold and retaining the right to license it to other companies.
The goal of the console was to create and inexpensive computer aligned mostly at playing CD base multimedia software, especially games, but also functioning as a network computer. In March 1995, the first white Bandai Pippin, named the ATMARK, went on sale in Japan. The console included a dial up modem and four bundled titles.
A few months later, the black coloured Bandai Pippin, called @WORLD, was released in the United States. At launch, it retailed for $600, three times the price of the popular Nintendo 64. By the middle of 1996, it was clear that sales of the Pippin were catastrophically low, with no prospect for improvement on the horizon. The resulting lack of software and the high price tag were simply too much for the Pippin to bear. It was a financial disaster for Bandai, however they managed to compensate its heavy losses with the virtual pet Tamagotchi, and LCD accessory that sold multi-million units and became a world wide crazy.