The power of nostalgia has led to the opening of a Tamagotchi store.

The small electronic Japanese toy wasn’t the first virtual pet – Dogz (1995) got in a year before. But over the past 28 years Tamagotchi has hoovered up a legion of dedicated fans, who delight in “looking after” their poopy pets.

A year ago total sales were over 90 million units.

The Tamagotchi Official Shop at Camden Market is the first of its kind in the UK, and carries lines including Tamagotchi Original, Tamagotchi Connection, Tamagotchi Uni and Tamagotchi Nano. It comes as stores in Japan have closed.

 

Tamagotchi store Camden Market London.

 

Owner Bandai Namco told the BBC global sales more than doubled between 2022 and 2023.

Tamagotchi virtual pets go through life stages and need to be cared for. If not, they can die. Tech advances have meant you can now partner with another Tamagotchi and extend the family line.

“Now you can connect with friends, you can play on Wi-Fi and download different items, and that’s really combating that sense of fatigue that you might have gotten with some earlier models,” Tamagotchi brand manager Priya Jadeja told the BBC.

Tamagotchi relaunched in the UK in 2019.

 

 

 

“Tamagotchi Uni Monster Carnival” from Tamagotchi Uni series, the first in the Tamagotchi series to feature Wi-Fi!

 

The virtual pet market in Australia includes Bitzee Interactive Digital Pet ($39 at Big W, but sold out) – which responds to swipes, tilts, shakes and touch. You can feed them, rock them to sleep and clean up their mess. Woot.

There’s also Han Cheng, a $12.09 pet through Amazon. And Woolworths has the Bandai Digimon Virtual Pet Transparent for $48.95.

 

Tamagotchi bug fix.

 

In the wake of the launch of the UK store Tamagotchi was forced issue updates over the weekend for a “malfunction” with its Tamagotchi Uni version 2.1.0, which had only been released on September 12.

“We would like to ask our customers to please update. After the update, the server situation will gradually improve, so if the error continues to DO IT, please wait a while and try again.”

It says the fix includes resolving issues with Tamagotchi appearing in Tamaverse, a bug that prevented players from participating in the Tama Arena event ‘Bunny Jump Returns’ and a bug that prevented Download Area from being swapped.”