Put on the market in November 1996 by Bandai, they sold over 40 million units. More than 7 years later, they are back with a vengeance... actually... an Infra Red port. The new Tamagotchi Plus launched on March 20th and are expected to sell over 2 million units before the end of 2005. The screen resolution has doubled, its memory increased and yet it will sell for the same 1996 price of ¥1980.

The big news is that it now comes with an IR port which allows it to communicate with other tamagotchis; they can play together, exchange gifts, make friends (up to 50) and even look for potential partners, get married (if it doesn't fall in love, a middleman can arrange a marriage...) and they can have babies. [Via]

From mid-April, owners of Vodafone mobile phones will be able to download the Tamagotchi Plus application (developed with Bandai) from their Vodafone Live! service.

And here are some critical thoughts about the original Tamagotchis.