Thirty years on, the Tamagotchi toy is still alive and kicking even in this age where smartphones and social media are the rage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The virtual pet-raising simulation game is making a comeback yet again in Japan, enjoying the fourth wave of popularity boosted by the Heisei Era (1989-2019) retro boom.<\/p>\n
Riding the coattails of the resurgence of interest in the franchise, the latest Tamagotchi Paradise model was released on July 11, some 30 years after its first release to\u00a0become one of Japan\u2019s hit products representing the Heisei Era.<\/p>\n
The secret behind why it has been cherished for generations lies in what has changed and what hasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Tamagotchi was originally released on Nov. 23, 1996.<\/p>\n
It is a palm-size\u00a0game in which players feed a virtual pet that hatches from an egg on the LCD screen, clean up its waste and take care of other needs to raise the pet.<\/p>\n
Tamagotchi instantly became popular among children, particularly among high school girls.<\/p>\n
It eventually took Japan by storm. Long lines formed at stores nationwide, leaving them sold out on occasion.<\/p>\n
The pet\u2019s appearance changes depending on how it is raised, while its personality also changes.<\/p>\n
Many players might have found their virtual pets dead because they couldn\u2019t take care of them while at school, or seen the digital creature fall ill after asking their parents to take care of it.<\/p>\n
Three decades after the initial release, the game has been sold in more than 50 countries and regions, shipping more than 100 million units.<\/p>\n
It also created quite a buzz as foreign celebrities were discovered playing the game.<\/p>\n
Early Tamagotchi players are now adults and enjoy the game with their children.<\/p>\n
It has become a common sight to find not only young people but also families and foreign tourists at the Tamagotchi Factory store in Tokyo\u2019s Harajuku district.<\/p>\n
\u2018PARTNER INSIDE SCREEN\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI was an only child, so I was glad because I felt like having a partner inside the LCD screen,\u201d said Yuuri Okamoto, 36, who is in charge of planning at Bandai Co., which sells the game.<\/p>\n
Tamagotchi was hard to come by when she was an elementary school student.<\/p>\n
Her parents gave her her first Tamagotchi toy in 1997. The gameplay of Tamagotchi Angel involved raising an Obaketchi, the ghost of a dead Tamagotchi, into an angel.<\/p>\n
Okamoto has always loved drawing illustrations, and she landed the job at the company because she wanted to be involved in designing characters.<\/p>\n
She was assigned to the Tamagotchi development team soon after joining Bandai.<\/p>\n
After the animated TV series featuring Tamagotchi characters started airing, not only related toys but also Mametchi, Kuchipatchi and other characters also became popular.<\/p>\n
Learning that Tamagotchi has been beloved for generations, Okamoto eventually thought that it is an important asset for the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren still play with a toy that I loved,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope they learn about the new world and become interested in it through Tamagotchi.\u201d<\/p>\n
WHAT CHANGES, WHAT DOESN\u2019T<\/p>\n
A total of 38 Tamagotchi models have been sold over the past 30 years.<\/p>\n
One reason behind its long-running popularity is that it has continued to evolve as it reflects the social situation of the time.<\/p>\n
In 2004, the game introduced infrared data communication, inspired by how adults exchanged photos and other data using cellphones.<\/p>\n
The new function appealed to children who wanted to copy adults, helping usher in the second fad.<\/p>\n
The Tamagotchi Plus Color released in 2008 was the first model to feature a color LCD screen, which showed the pet\u2019s emotions in a more realistic manner.<\/p>\n
Along with the animated TV series, Tamagotchi enjoyed a third wave in popularity.<\/p>\n
The game has also captured the social background of the current time amid the latest fourth wave in popularity.<\/p>\n
One such is the so-called \u201cTama Sitter\u201d function. Players can spend the in-game currency called \u201cGotchi Points\u201d to hire a babysitter to take care of their pets.<\/p>\n
The babysitter function had been installed in previous models.<\/p>\n
\u201cNowadays, an increasing number of children are busy with school and after-school lessons,\u201d Okamoto said. \u201cIt was only natural to have someone else take care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Previous models were equipped with features that allowed players to have their pets go to school and nursery school, or even stay at a resort hotel.<\/p>\n
One model released during the COVID-19 pandemic had a feature where players could order a meal and have it delivered.<\/p>\n
In addition, users can put their pets to bed or wake them up within a certain period of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren have many different lifestyles. We have also a growing number of adult users, and we designed the game so that each of them can play the game at a time that works for them and in their own way,\u201d Okamoto said.<\/p>\n
But there is something that remains unchanged after all these years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt falls sick and dies if you don\u2019t take care of it,\u201d she added. \u201cIt may be a digital space, but one of the things that makes Tamagotchi what it is today, no matter how long it has been around, is that it makes players understand the importance of life, just like when dealing with regular pets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thirty years on, the Tamagotchi toy is still alive and kicking even in this age where smartphones and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8768,4,450,28,451,3471,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-807296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-asahi-shimbun","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-business","tag-headlines","tag-japan","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}