As time goes on, more and more gaming consoles will be released and will only get better and better with each passing year. But as more and more gaming consoles are released, we forget about the older gaming consoles that shaped how we game. In this mini-series, we'll be looking at some forgotten consoles that you probably had yourself! In our previous blog within this series, we focused on the Virtual Boy Console. This time, we shift to a new developer, one you may not expect... Apple. Here's the Apple Gaming Console.
Related blog: Exploring Forgotten Consoles: Nintendo DSi
What is a pippin apple?
The Apple Pippin was an open multimedia technology platform designed by Apple Computer. (At this point, they hadn't rebranded to simply Apple) It was released in 1996, before their major claim to fame with the iPhone in 2007. It was in partnership with Japanese toymaker Bandai, who you may have heard of before, and they developed popular video games like Tekken 8. Apple were attempting to reach out further into the tech world be creating a gaming console... well... trying to create one. It looked like an old Xbox console, with both the console and controller products being white, the controller itself had a couple of joysticks on it for controls, along with 4 buttons that were red, blue, yellow and green. The console had a compartment at the front to put the actual disk into, which was covered with the Pippin logo; it looked very basic.
According to Apple, Pippin was intended to be more than just a platform for games consoles, it was named for the Newtown Pippin, an Apple cultivator, a smaller version of the McIntoshh Apple. Nowadays, however, it's known as the failed internet-console TV gaming console. It sounds like it had potential, so why did it do so badly?
How many games did Apple Pippin have?
- Action Designer: Ultraman Tiga - 1997
- Dinosaur Museum - 1996
- Gadget: Invention, Travel and Adventure - 1996
- Ultraman: The Digital Board Game - 1996
- Victorian Park - 1996
- Anime Designer: Dragon Ball Z - 1996
- Chibikko Club - 1996
- New Legacy Laboratory - 1996
- Ocean Life: Hawaii Edition - 1996
- Circus! - 1996
- Power Nazoler - 1996
- Tarot Mystery - 1996
How did the Apple pippin fall?
Believe it or not, if you're familiar with Apple's many, many project releases and failures, the Apple Pippin was not successful. There were many small factors that, put together, made the Apple Pippin doomed from the beginning. To begin, the system's third-party developers consisted only of small software houses, making production more difficult. When it was released in the USA, it was marketed at $599, which, as you can guess, especially in 1996, was too expensive. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he shut down the console, and production stopped.
The console simply didn't sell enough because of its price. Within the 1 (and only) year of its availability, the console sold 42,000 units, which is a horrific failure for Apple. Bandai stopped the production of all models by mid-1977.
Related blog: Will PlayStation and Xbox Become Obsolete?
Conclusion:
In conclusion, we aren't really surprised that this console flopped; it seems like Apple got too ahead of itself in reaching out in the tech world. We know from current Apple projects that Apple are infamous for releasing concepts, solely focusing on it, releasing or at least releasing a price tag for the project, then backing out when people complained it was too expensive. They did this with the Apple Vision Pro and Apple Car. We don't think this is a console Apple should return to, we think keep the gaming consoles to the professionals and focus on what Apple do best, creating high-quality smart tech.
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