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Bandai

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Bandai Co., Ltd. (株式会社バンダイ) is a Japanese toy company that marketed and distributed the Playdia system.[1]

History[]

Bandai-ya first HQ 1950

Bandai-ya's first office in Tokyo.

In 1947, Japanese war veteran Naoharu Yamashina (山科 直治) began distributing toys in Tokyo while working for a textile wholesale business operated by his brother in law. Yamashina spun off this business into Bandai-ya in July 1950, deriving the name from a Chinese phrase that translates to "things that are eternal."[2][3] Its first original Bandai product, the Rhythm Ball, was released in September 1950. Bandai began exporting products in March 1951 and adopted its present shortened name in May 1961.[4][5] Yamashina's son Makoto became the president of Bandai in May 1980.[6]

Bandai and video games[]

Bandai first entered into the computer gaming industry in July 1983 with the RX-78 microcomputer.[7] Tag Team Match: MUSCLE was released in November 1985 for the Nintendo Family Computer and became Bandai's first big video game hit, selling over a million copies.[6] Bandai's first original console, the Playdia (プレイディア), was released in Japan in September 1994.[1] Bandai rapidly expanded its business in the 1990's with the success of its Sailor Moon and Power Rangers franchises.[8][9] Bandai CEO Makoto Yamashina (山科誠) predicted to The Wall Street Journal in 1994 that the company's interactive sales would surpass that of toys by US$ 1 billion by the year 2000.[10]

Pippin Atmark console set

A Pippin Atmark console.

Less than 3 months later on December 13, 1994 in Tokyo, Japan, Apple Computer announced its partnership with Bandai to develop the new Pippin platform.[11] Makoto Yamashina had selected Apple's Macintosh as the basis of the Pippin due to its ease of use.[12] Bandai spent $93 million on marketing and development leading up to the launch of the Pippin Atmark in March 1996.[13] By the time it withdrew the consoles from the market in March 1998, over 50,000 unsold units remained in inventory and Bandai's losses from the Pippin were estimated at $214 million dollars.[14]

Bandai's last console to date was the portable WonderSwan series. It was better received in Japan and its variants sold 3.5 million units from March 1999 to 2003.[15][16] Bandai was also aided in its recovery by the breakout success of its Tamagotchi digital pets,[17] which had been launched in November 1996.[18] By 2010, 76 million of the virtual pets had been sold.[19]

Bandai merged with Namco in September 2005 and presently operates as a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings.[20][21]

Subsidiaries[]

  • Bandai Digital Entertainment Company (BDE or BDEC) was established in October 1995 to publish software titles for Pippin consoles in Japan and the United States. Some cross-platform titles were also released for Macintosh and Windows.[11][22] BDEC was dissolved on March 13, 1998 with the abandonment of the Pippin platform. Its facilities and staff were absorbed by other divisions of Bandai,[23] which continued to provide support for remaining Pippin users until the end of 2002.[24][25]
  • Bandai Music Entertainment is primarily a music publisher that released only one title for the Pippin — Dinosaur Museum featuring pop singer Agnes Chan.[26]
  • Bandai Visual produced anime, film, and music content which were often distributed under its Emotion label.[27]
Banpresto animated logo
  • Banpresto produced toys and games specifically for the Japanese convenience store market.[28] After the Playdia platform was discontinued in 1996, Banpresto repurposed the unsold consoles into coin-operated kinetoscopes called Micha King (みちゃ王) that played anime clips in Japanese arcades.[29][30] The division was dissolved and merged into Bandai Spirits in February 2019.[28]
  • Emotion Digital Software is a label that published titles for platforms other than the Pippin.[31]

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 TVゲームの歴史 - プレイディア, GameForest. 2007-01-12.
  2. ↑ Bandai Co., Ltd. History, Funding Universe. Accessed 2019-02-26.
  3. ↑ Bandai founder left 2.65 billion yen estate, The Japan Times. 1998-10-12.
  4. ↑ BANDAI's History - 1950's, Bandai Co., Ltd. Archived 2013-04-01.
  5. ↑ BANDAI's History - 1960's, Bandai Co., Ltd. Archived 2013-04-02.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 BANDAI's History - 1980's, Bandai Co., Ltd. Archived 2013-04-02.
  7. ↑ ＲＸ－７８－ＧＵＮＤＡＭ　（バンダイ：１９８３）, K's Dee(ケイズ・ディー)の『パソコン博物館』. 2007-09-30.
  8. ↑ BANDAI's History - 1990's, Bandai Co., Ltd. Archived 2013-04-02.
  9. ↑ Power Rangers Maker Moving U.S. Office to Cypress by Greg Miller and Bill Billiter, Los Angeles Times. 1996-08-16.
  10. ↑ The Bandai Playdia -- Bandai's Educational Home Console by Kelsey Lewin, YouTube. 2017-07-03.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Bandai Pippin FAQ, The Mac Geek.
  12. ↑ Interview - 'We Sell Dreams to Kids' by Cesar Bacani and Murakami Mutsuko, CNN. 1996-04-19.
  13. ↑ Power Ranger - A Japanese Toymaker Invades Cyberspace by Cesar Bacani and Murakami Mutsuko, CNN. 1996-04-19.
  14. ↑ Bandai kisses goodbye to Pippin console., Screen Digest. 1998-03-01.
  15. ↑ Bandai WonderSwan 101: A Beginner's Guide, Racketboy. 2007-07-06.
  16. ↑ Bandai WonderSwan (1999 – 2003), Museum of Obsolete Media. Accessed 2019-01-07.
  17. ↑ 成为财团B之前，万代在做什么？ (Chinese) by 程明, Zhihu. 2018-01-07.
  18. ↑ Background by Jef Samp, Critical Thoughts About Tamagotchi. 2001-01-18.
  19. ↑ Tamagotchi iD L (PDF), Bandai (Japanese). 2011-02-01.
  20. ↑ Company Overview of BANDAI Co., Ltd., Bloomberg. Accessed 2018-07-13.
  21. ↑ Bandai, Namco to merge in Sept to form Japan's No 3 toy, game group, Forbes. 2005-05-02. Archived 2011-08-14.
  22. ↑ Background of BDE, Studio02. Accessed 2018-06-25.
  23. ↑ Bandai Says Goodbye to Pippin by Chris Johnston, GameSpot. 1998-02-27.
  24. ↑ On the Apple PiPP!N by Stephen Hackett, 512 Pixels. 2012-11-18.
  25. ↑ テレビワークスPOP その仕様差は・・・ (Japanese) by MAISON PiPPiN, GeoCities. Archived 2000-03-07.
  26. ↑ Le problème avec les jeux Pippin : on en découvre régulièrement (French) by Pierre Dandumont, Le Journal du Lapin. 2019-01-13.
  27. ↑ Bandai Visual, Sega Retro. Accessed 2018-09-21.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Toy Company Banpresto Dissolves, Combines With Bandai Spirits by Jennifer Sherman, Anime News Network. 2019-02-22.
  29. ↑ みちゃ王用ディスク。 (Japanese) by じろのすけ, Twitter. 2017-04-27.
  30. ↑ Video Games Densetsu by VGDensetsu, Tumblr. 2017-04-04.
  31. ↑ Emotion Digital Software, MobyGames. Accessed 2018-09-21.

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