Bandai’s digital eggs of doom are back, and this time, they’ve got lasers. The original Tamagochi virtual pet was a huge success for the Japanese company with over 40 million units sold, as well as helping to usher in an age where taking care of a robot dog or feeding a piece of software didn’t seem so strange. Technically, the new Tamagochis don’t appear to fall far from the tree, but the addition of a new IR port allows the virtual pets to exchange gifts, make friends, or even get it on with other Tamagochi (Dear Jesus, please allow pregnant Tamagochi to give birth to a litter of one-pixel babies, to my delighted screams. Amen.) Bandai expects to sell 2 million units before the end of 2005. If the infrared interaction is everything it could be, I think they’ll hit that mark this year, easily.
