As video comes to town, toy major Bandai Co is reluctantly focusing expansion plans on multimedia and overseas developments. More famous for its Power Rangers than Pippin, its Apple Computer Inc clone, the firm accompanied passable results (9.6% pre -tax profit-to-sales ratio on a parent basis in fiscal 1995) with the confession that its traditional market – character-based figures – has been hit heavily by the popularity of video games. Consolidated sales for our present line of business can climb to [$2,720m] at the highest, said company president Makoto Yamashina. We have no alternative but to expand overseas and into multimedia. Under the mantle, Plan 99, he is aiming his company at consolidated sales of $4,500m by 1999, with over seas consolidated sales of a little over $2,000m – five times the figure for fiscal 1995. Central to the multimedia plan is the Pippin Atmark, a simple computer terminal developed with Apple Computer Inc that enables users to play games and connect to the Internet. The product was put on the market in March but initial sales have been disappointing – only about 15,000 units sold up to May. Even though the general perception is the device is too expensive, Bandai said it would not lower it, although when rival products hit the market, it seems unlikely Bandai will be able to hold out against the increasing price pressure. The Nippon Keizai Shimbun reports that Bandai Digital Entertainment Co, the subsidiary that handles Pippin, is expected to suffer an $18m pre-tax loss even if it meets this year’s current sales targets of 200,000 units each in Japan and the US. Judging from the current sales pace, however, the paper fears that the loss will probably turn out rather higher.
