Playdia Quick Interactive System - Bandai's commercial failure

In 1994 in Japan there was one of the most relevant video game wars in history between the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. Both consoles had a power of 32 Bits with Cd-Rom technology capable of displaying 2D and 3D graphics having an excellent success since its inception. This led to other companies to get involved in the design of video consoles, Bandai was one of them to launch the Playdia Quick Interactive System.

Playdia was launched in October 1994 as an interactive console with 8-bit power. Its processor was not as powerful as the competition's because this console was not designed to show 2D or 3D graphics, but to show videos in FMV format, which was used by the Sega Mega CD.

He wanted to reach a different audience with his gameplay system which consisted of choosing multiple responses in interactive videos, which could be based on famous anime from that country, among them we can find Sailor Moon or Dragon Ball Z, that is, franchises that Bandai had the right to distribute.

This console had the peculiarity of having a control which worked through an infrared port, despite the fact that nowadays it sounds a bit old-fashioned, for that time it was very innovative, since to connect most of the controls to the consoles was through a cable, if we wanted to do it wirelessly it was necessary to have additional accessories, but in the Playdia it was done natively.

The method of connection to the TV was through the typical RCA cables, which were identified by three colors, yellow, white and red. The connection to the current was through a transformer which was a little strange considering that the consoles were already incorporating these transformers into their system.

Its control was very simple, unlike the competition this did not have a D-pad, because it was not necessary by the type of gameplay, had only 6 buttons which indicate their function with certain figures on the control. As a curiosity, the console had a space where to insert that control, being totally uniform.

Due to the fact that PlayStation and Sega Saturn were taking over the market, Playdia did not have much success, launching only 33 official games, of which some were aimed at an adult audience, this was done with the purpose of recovering a little bit the losses they had with the development and creation of the videoconsole.

Finally, in 1996 Bandai would announce the end of this console, becoming a commercial failure, as it sold the poor amount of 46000 units. In addition, it would focus on a project which they thought would be more profitable, this would become known as the Apple Pippin, console that was launched in partnership with Apple in 1997.

In spite of how different Playdia was, it was crushed by the most popular consoles of the past, being buried in Japan, country that had the opportunity to see this console, since in the West not even the shadow of it arrived, remaining as one of the most relevant commercial failures in the history of video games.

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