What BanDai needs is the results for a short survery I did in my class at school about what people have against Tamas. Here are the most informative results:
They're old-fashioned (grey screen, large pixels and all)
They're boring (when I described the iD L to them, they changed their mind, but iD L's don't sell in the UK)
They're girly (I must agree with the boy who said that!)
They break easily (well more like, the people who own them break them easily, but I included that one anyway)
I mean, with those four negative views of Tamagotchi, BanDai UK/America could produce a modern, exciting, gender-neutral and durable toy we all want, but their marketing isn't too good. A simple summary of my opinion: BanDai is targeting the completely wrong audience. Here we older kids, teenagers and adults are, paying $100 for iD L's from Japan, and BanDai America is struggling to attract 4-year-old girls who can't understand the Tamas. I mean, it's pathetic I think, making a toy with the design for a 5 year olds then programming it with complex games and slapping an 8+ label on the package! So either a teenager buys it and gets laughed at for the childish design or a 5 year old buys it and gets upset with the complex games and figure price for the TMGO. Neither of these would be happy!
A message to BanDai America: If you want to target young girls, make a design AND features for young girls. If it's teenagers, THE AUDIENCE WHO ARE ALREADY BEGGING FOR TAMAS AND WILL BUY ANYTHING YOU RELEASE, then make design AND features appropriate for teenagers!
It's simple! They could release a Tama-Go Giant SuperPricy Toddler Toy and we would probably buy it for $50 just for the sake of Tamagotchi! Why bother trying to attract new fans when they already have us, begging for new Tamas and making BanDai Japan rich! THEY could get all that money BanDai Japan are making out of us! It is, as someone already said, like handing over a million dollars to BanDai Japan!
~ Dazzmina ~