Tara Badie, Senior Director of Brand Strategy, Showcases Tamagotchi Pix in Video Interview
If you don’t already know of Tara Badie, then you’re about to! Tara Badie is a Senior Director of Brand Strategy at Bandai America and is a crucial figure in the Tamagotchi lineup in North America dating back to the Tamagotchi Friends.Tara recently joined Fred Fishkin of Techstination, a daily radio and online report on customer technology for a Zoom interview that has been posted to YouTube!
Tara introduces the Tamagotchi Pix and even gives us some footage of the actual device, how exciting! The key features she speaks about are the touch buttons, the camera, and the enhanced gameplay. Tara shows off how you can now pet your Tamagotchi on screen with the new touch buttons, and how you’ll actually be able to bathe your Tamagotchi and help them get cleaned up with these buttons too!
You can use the camera button on the top of your Tamagotchi Pix to not only take pictures with your camera that your Tamagotchi character can appear in, but also take screenshots! Tara notes that pictures can only be sent to other Tamagotchi Pix devices, and not connected to other sources. The Pix will be able to hold up to 100 pictures, and users can delete select pictures once their memory is full. With the camera you get to explore in the real world as you are out and about, your character will explore with you, and at times their friends will pop up in the real world! This feature is available in the explore menu of the Tamagotchi Pix. Speaking of which, it looks like the menu has a small redesign and features two pages of icons.
The Tamagotchi website will feature missions starting this summer that you can complete. Once you succeed in the mission you’ll get a Tama Code (which is a QR code) that will give you exclusive items and more.
We did notice that the animations are incredibly smooth from the live footage, it appears that Bandai may be moving away from the pixelated animations and are really upgrading them! The host, Fred, asks about the demographic of the device. Tara informs Fred that although the device is marketed to children 6 years of age or older, there is a diverse Tamagotchi community that really is excited about everything Tamagotchi!
With this many features battery life must be a concern, Tara informs viewers that the Tamagotchi On achieved roughly 10 days of battery life, and the Tamagotchi Pix will actually get less battery life thanks to the camera feature. The battery life should be approximately 7 days, so we are looking at a 30% reduction in battery life but of course that is all based on use. The Pix will take two AAA batteries, which Tara Badie thinks is a bit unfortunate; and we agree!
We really love this new feature that Tara goes into detail about. The Pix will feature a memory book that you can create through your Tamagotchi’s life. Seven days after your Tamagotchi grows up until adulthood, they will ask to go back to Tamagotchi Planet. You will be able to drop three pictures of your character into a photo book along with customize items that you’ll be able to paint. You’ll see your Tamagotchi character return to Tamagotchi Planet on screen reviewing the photo book, and then your Tamagotchi will choose which egg to send to you to raise next! This is a feature we’ve never seen before, and are SUPER excited about!
Pix will feature a memory book so you can customize items and color items after 7 days after adulthood the Tamagotchi asks to go back to Tamagotchi Planet, you drop in 3 pictures of your character and your Tamagotchi goes back to the planet and the Tamagotchi character reviews the photo book and sends back the egg it believes is right to raise next!
Bandai is really excited about the distribution of the Pix, noting that pre-orders are already live for Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart in the United States. The Pix carries an MSRP of $59.99 USD and will be available in stores this July! Tara also notes that two styles will be joining the family “in early spring” but that would be now, wouldn’t it?
Lastly Tara stresses the durability of the device, and informs viewers that how-to videos will be published on the official Tamagotchi website around launch. These videos will cover the new features of the device to help new caretakers learn more about the Tamagotchi Pix features. This is the first multi-lingual product that Tara has worked on, and she’s super excited! Users will be able to choose their language (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese) once they boot up their device. The language will be asked before the user enters in their name, and their birthdate.
We must say that the interview really gave us a lot of information and some gameplay on the Tamagotchi Pix! We still have lots of questions that we want answers to, and we’ll be sure to get them soon! Be sure to check out the full interview here!
