Bandai Co., Ltd. (株式会社バンダイ) is a Japanese toy company that marketed and distributed the WonderSwan system.
History[]
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."[1][2] 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.[3][4] Yamashina's son Makoto became the president of Bandai in May 1980.[5]
Bandai and video games[]
Bandai's earlier forays into the video game industry included the RX-78 microcomputer, which was released in Japan in July 1983.[6] The Playdia console was released in Japan on September 23, 1994.[7] 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.[8]
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.[9] Yamashina had selected Apple's Macintosh as the basis of the Pippin due to its ease of use.[10] Bandai spent $93 million on marketing and development leading up to the launch of the Pippin Atmark in March 1996.[11] 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.[12]
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.[13][14] Bandai was also aided in its recovery by the breakout success of its Tamagotchi digital pets,[15] which had been launched in November 1996.[16] By 2010, 76 million of the virtual pets had been sold.[17]
Bandai merged with Namco in September 2005 and presently operates as a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings.[18][19]
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.[9][20] 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,[21] which continued to provide support for remaining Pippin users until the end of 2002.[22][23]
- Bandai Music Entertainment is primarily a music publisher that released only one title for the Pippin — Dinosaur Museum featuring pop singer Agnes Chan.[24]
- Bandai Visual produced anime, film, and music content which were often distributed under its Emotion label.[25]
- Banpresto produced toys and video games specifically for the Japanese market. It was dissolved and merged into Bandai Spirits in February 2019.[26]
- Emotion Digital Software is a label that published titles for platforms other than the Pippin.[27]
References[]
- ↑ Bandai Co., Ltd. History, Funding Universe. Accessed 2019-02-26.
- ↑ Bandai founder left 2.65 billion yen estate, The Japan Times. 1998-10-12.
- ↑ BANDAI's History - 1950's, Bandai Co., Ltd. Archived 2013-04-01.
- ↑ BANDAI's History - 1960's, Bandai Co., Ltd. Archived 2013-04-02.
- ↑ BANDAI's History - 1980's, Bandai Co., Ltd. Archived 2013-04-02.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ TVゲームの歴史 - プレイディア, GameForest. 2007-01-12.
- ↑ The Bandai Playdia -- Bandai's Educational Home Console by Kelsey Lewin, YouTube. 2017-07-03.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Bandai Pippin FAQ, The Mac Geek.
- ↑ Interview - 'We Sell Dreams to Kids' by Cesar Bacani and Murakami Mutsuko, CNN. 1996-04-19.
- ↑ Power Ranger - A Japanese Toymaker Invades Cyberspace by Cesar Bacani and Murakami Mutsuko, CNN. 1996-04-19.
- ↑ Bandai kisses goodbye to Pippin console., Screen Digest. 1998-03-01.[DEAD LINK]
- ↑ Bandai WonderSwan 101: A Beginner's Guide, Racketboy. 2007-07-06.
- ↑ Bandai WonderSwan (1999 – 2003), Museum of Obsolete Media. Accessed 2019-01-07.
- ↑ 成为财团B之前,万代在做什么? (Chinese) by 程明, Zhihu. 2018-01-07.
- ↑ Background by Jef Samp, Critical Thoughts About Tamagotchi. 2001-01-18.
- ↑ Tamagotchi iD L (PDF), Bandai (Japanese). 2011-02-01.
- ↑ Company Overview of BANDAI Co., Ltd., Bloomberg. Accessed 2018-07-13.
- ↑ Bandai, Namco to merge in Sept to form Japan's No 3 toy, game group, Forbes. 2005-05-02. Archived 2011-08-14.
- ↑ Background of BDE, Studio02. Accessed 2018-06-25.
- ↑ Bandai Says Goodbye to Pippin by Chris Johnston, GameSpot. 1998-02-27. Archived 1998-12-05.
- ↑ On the Apple PiPP!N by Stephen Hackett, 512 Pixels. 2012-11-18.
- ↑ テレビワークスPOP その仕様差は・・・ (Japanese) by MAISON PiPPiN, GeoCities. Archived 2000-03-07.
- ↑ Le problème avec les jeux Pippin : on en découvre régulièrement (French) by Pierre Dandumont, Le Journal du Lapin. 2019-01-13.
- ↑ Bandai Visual, Sega Retro. Accessed 2018-09-21.
- ↑ Toy Company Banpresto Dissolves, Combines With Bandai Spirits by Jennifer Sherman, Anime News Network. 2019-02-22.
- ↑ Emotion Digital Software, MobyGames. Accessed 2018-09-21.
External links[]
- Bandai official Japanese homepage (archived 1996-10-29)
- Bandai Co., Ltd. (Company) at Giant Bomb
- Bandai Co., Ltd. at MobyGames
- Bandai at the Internet Movie Database
- Bandai at the Pippin @World & Atmark Wiki
- Bandai at the Playdia Wiki
- Bandai at Wikipedia