I read a post somewhere about the packaging of the TMGC+C. Everyone was saying how simple and elegant it looked, and how it didn't really look like a kids game. I think this is the clue. Tamagotchi virtual pets have a different target market in japan to what they do in the western world. For example, tamagotchi's were orignially aimed at japanese highschool girls. But they were popular with nearly everyone. They had sort of 'childcare' for tamagotchis while their owners were at work. But in the western world, especially with the new tamagotchis, they seem to be aimed fairly young people. Nowadays kids just want to grow up, so the target markets of most toys have been pushed down.
A lot of people have complained about the difference between the japanese and western tamagotchis. People would say: 'Why do they think we're so stupid?' because the western ones have a lot less features than the japanese ones (eg entama, ura tama vs. V4, V4.5) but the fact is, even though a lot of you here are not young children (me included) bandai america/uk etc think we are, or at least the majority of people who buy them are. that's why the japanese ones have all these complicated features like cooking, harder games, lots of jobs and the characters take longer to grow up- whereas the western ones have tones of characters, simpler games and a shorter life. =Different target markets.
So, in conclusion to my long rant (sorry about that) I don't think we'll see a western release of the TMGC+C for a long time. Because in japan it is treated as more of a pet than a game for kids, people are willing to spend the money on it. It looks like the latest japanese gadjet. Whereas in the western world, people would only pay money like that (unless they are TMGC fans!!
) if it was something more practical, like a MP3 player or phone. So to be release here we would need it to be in the toy price range. And not the price of some of the more complex toys, (like gameboys etc) it would have to be normal tamagotchi price. And to get that it would have to be a very stripped down version of the japanese one, and the technology would have to be way cheaper.
the end
sorry that was so long, hope it makes sense
neimo