I spoke about this situation on Tama Zone several times, and I'll bring it to the attention of everyone here, because I know there are some people here that aren't at TZ. Beware, because this post is indeed going to be what you think it is... a rant.
Bandai America is definitely to blame here, but not for the reasons everyone may think. They are delaying the Tamagotchi Friends not because they want to make us mad and whatnot, but because, simply, they are on a high horse of sorts right now. And this situation lasting for two years when it should have been one year was a forced situation by another company.
Bandai America is still going through releases for the Power Rangers 20th anniversary (Which was actually last year, but had to include this year as well due to the TV show being handled the way it is schedulewise by Nickelodeon), and they feel that they can just release toys for that series alone and everyone will be happy.
(Yes, they did release toys for Digimon Fusion during this period, but they were not the same quality as what we got during previous Digimon runs - we didn't even get a proper Digivice. So that toyline is null and void in this discussion.)
Now, that would be all dandy and all under most circumstances, but think about this situation, which is the thorn in our side right now... what did Bandai America do for the 15th anniversaries for the US releases of Tamagotchi and Digimon (Which were back to back years by the way)? That's right... absolutely
NOTHING!
Even Bandai Japan knows better than to pull such a stunt. Case in point, they do anniversary releases for ALL of their toylines, and when one toyline is on an anniversary year, they still continue to release products in their other lines, whether they're also on anniversary years or not.
In short, blame Bandai America for not caring about anything else but the Power Rangers toyline due to the anniversary, and also blame Nickelodeon for their poor approach to scheduling the TV show associated with that toyline (Which is why the PR anniversary toyline is actually going through two years). If it wasn't for the latter handling the TV series as bad as they are, we would probably have had the Tamagotchi Friends by now.
In closing, the last wave of Power Rangers Super Megaforce toys have just been shipped to the US retailers, so fortunately this should be over soon. However, if Bandai America delays the Tamagotchi Friends again, they won't have any excuses to fall back on and they'll just be considered as being plain lazy. And at that point, I'll be flipping tables at them.
Rant over. Glad I got that off my chest.