GamingGuest Userjapanese, subculture, original, culture, japan, game, pippin, apple, bandai

Apple's [and Bandai's] Worst F**k Up - PiPP!N

GamingGuest Userjapanese, subculture, original, culture, japan, game, pippin, apple, bandai
Apple's [and Bandai's] Worst F**k Up - PiPP!N

Today, Apple is one of the most successful brands & companies in the world.

In fact, it literally is the biggest company in the world as of 2022. But even giants like Apple have relics from the past that they don't want to be uncovered today. Sorry Apple, as much as we use & love you, this one is for the culture. Let's take a look back at Apple & Bandai's worst product ever, the PiPP!N.

 
 

While you instantly associate Apple with iPhones and Macs, back in 1996 they ventured into the gaming field. The Apple PiPP!N was a multimedia technology platform, which included the classic Mac OS structure. Due to this, apart from playing PiPP!N games, it was able to run Macintosh games as well. Sounds great so far? Here's where it goes downhill.

 
 

Bandai approached Apple to make a scaled-down Macintosh that was a video game console. This era was the golden age of gaming consoles, with the release of pioneering consoles like the Nintendo 64, PS1, and SEGA Saturn. Consoles typically had a rather affordable price point, under $300. The PiPP!N was $650. This led to the PiPP!N selling 42,000 units worldwide, out of the 500,000 they produced. To put this in perspective, the SEGA Saturn sold roughly 10 million units, the Nintendo 64 sold over 30 million units, and the PS1 sold over 100 million units. The sales were so poor, it is often called "the worst selling console of all time".

 
 

There were also barely any games produced for it, and the few that were, weren't good. A lot of "edutainment" titles too, which never work. In the end, the team broke up in 1997, Bandai ended up with a total loss of ¥27 billion, and Apple ended up laying off 4,100 employees. Basically, Bandai lost 3 years' worth of the entire company's revenue with one project, and Apple lost 31% of their employees.

 
 

The lack of understatement & research of gaming culture, the high price point, the bad games, everything was just not good. But look at where Apple and Bandai are now. The Bandai Namco Entertainment CEO, who was a part of the PiPP!N project, even says "I want my employees to take risks, even if they fail. I lost my company ¥27 Billion."