The Tamagotchi are back in their original version, will it be a new sales boom or is it just a game for nostalgic people?
Italy you know is a country of nostalgic people. There's always a good excuse to remember old songs, old movies and even old toys. If you haven't recovered from the disappearance of the Tamagotchi, you can rest assured. The manufacturing company, Bandai, has republished the first edition of the famous portable game.
The Tamagotchi returns and does so in its original version, the one dated 1996. The characters, six to be precise, will be the same. And even the hardware of the game has not been modified. While to change are the dimensions of the toy that have been halved compared to the version of the nineties. Small change that has not discouraged Japanese consumers. In the country of the Rising Sun, the tamagotchi has gone completely out of stock. Many people have posted the photo of the purchase on Twitter including memories related to childhood. This new launch has also lowered the price to just over ten euros, but for the moment it is only available in Japan. Instead, in recent months, 1996 and 1997 Tamagotchi could be found on Amazon for over 130 euros.
How much nostalgia
2017 is the year that is bringing substantial technological innovations to the forefront. Think self-driving cars, drones or foldable smartphones. Yet it's also the year of the nostalgic. First the return of the Nokia 3310 and then the physical reinterpretation of the historic video game Pong. Now even the Tamagotchi. And to say that in 1997, when the game arrived in Italy, it was much discussed. Because children used it too much, even at school, and according to experts it was not educational, since the animals could also die. Yet these criticisms did not stop the queues outside the stores. By September 1997, tamagotchi sales exceeded 40 million.
Tamagotchi fans
Despite the 20 years that have passed since its launch even before this year's revival, tamagotchi has continued to have its fans, tens of thousands of people who have continued to play the portable video game. In spite of the decline in notoriety, in fact, tamagotchi continued to be produced until a few years ago. The first was the so-called P1, the most appreciated by fans, where you could turn the light on and off, take care of the little animal and scold him with repercussions on his character. Then came various versions with worlds, animals and new graphics. In 2004 came out the Tamababy, a tamagotchi that connected to another to generate a baby. In 2008 came out the tamagotchi in color and through the tamashop you can buy gadgets and accessories. There is also a site TamaTalk where users tell their stories and those of their little animals that boasts 95 thousand subscribers and has about 3.3 million page views per month.
How is the new Tamagotchi
The shapes and sizes of the Tamagotchi Anniversary Edition are virtually identical to those of the first specimen. Only the screen is slightly smaller, a difference that, however, is felt during the game phases. In the front of the device we will find the three classic buttons present in every Tamagotchi that will be used to interact with our "digital animal". The objective of the game is always the same: to grow our Tamagotchi and follow all its growth phase, from the moment in which the eggs hatch until it dies.
In comparison to the game of twenty years ago little has changed: the dynamics are always the same and for those who bought their first Tamagotchi at the age of 6 years, pick it up at 26 years is a dip in the past. The growth and care of your pet keeps the user busy throughout the day and in case we forget to do something (such as feeding it) a beep will remind us to complete our task. And if our Tamagotchi will pass away, we will have the opportunity to revive it and start from scratch in the hope not to make the same mistakes again.
Bandai Namco has marketed the Anniversary Edition of Tamagotchi only in the United States, but it is not excluded that it will soon arrive in Italy. The price in the U.S. is 15 dollars: we will only have to see how many adults (but children in the soul) will want to buy the new version of Tamagotchi.