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 Tamagotchi Connection V1, released in 2004 | |
| Type | Digital pet |
|---|---|
| Inventor(s) | Aki Maita |
| Company | Bandai |
| Country | Japan |
| Availability | 1996–present |
| Official website | |
Tamagotchi (Japanese: たまごっち, IPA: [tamaɡotꜜtɕi], "Egg Watch") is a brand of handheld digital pets that was created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ and Aki Maita of Bandai.[1] It was released by Bandai on November 23, 1996 in Japan and in the United States on May 1, 1997,[2][3] quickly becoming one of the biggest toy fads of the late 1990s and the early 2000s. As of June 2023[update], over 91 million units have been sold worldwide.[4] Most Tamagotchi are housed in a small egg-shaped handheld video game with an interface consisting of three buttons, with the Tamagotchi Pix adding a shutter on the top to activate the camera.
According to Bandai, the name is a portmanteau combining the two Japanese words tamago (たまご), which means "egg", and uotchi (ウオッチ) "watch".[5][6] After the original English spelling of watch, the name is sometimes romanized as Tamagotch without the "i" in Japan. Most Tamagotchi characters' names end in tchi or chi (ち) in Japanese, with few exceptions.
- ^ "Just Another Day's Work". CNN. 1997-07-25. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
- ^ "Bandai America's Tamagotchi Toys for 1998!". Bandai. Archived from the original on 1998-07-09. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
- ^ Michelle Delgado (22 December 2021). "Keeping Tamagotchi Alive". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
- ^ Faithfull, Mark. "Retro-Game Rides Nostalgia Wave As Tamagotchi Goes Back To The Future". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-01-29.
- ^ バンダイ タイムマシン. Bandai. Archived from the original on 2007-11-19. Retrieved 2007-08-18.()
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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