It’s been more than 20 years since the first Digital Monster virtual pets paved the way for the huge media franchise that Digimon would become. LCD virtual pets may not be as prominent today as they were in the late ’90s, but Bandai Namco’s been consistently putting out new digivices ever since. Soon, Digimon X will be the latest such toy to reach the west, with its long-awaited launch set for August this year.
Digimon X is described as “the next evolution in gameplay”, with over 100 Digimon evolutions to raise, new abilities, a random attack generator, and a new Quest Mode with new ways of levelling up. As always, each device can connect with others—including previous versions—to battle one another and show off the fruits of that training. There’ll be four different colours for the western release: blue and white, red and black, purple, red and yellow, and pink, blue and green.
Digimon X originally came out in Japan in 2019, and a few rogue store listings last year suggested that a worldwide release was on the way. Bandai Namco finally confirmed that at the DigiNavi event in March this year, and now we’ve finally got a release window to go with it.
“We’re so excited to bring this new device to market!” said Cisco Maldonado, Senior Director – Brand Strategy, Bandai America. “Fans of Digimon have been asking for Digimon X (quite vigorously- I may add) for a while and I’m pleased we are able to make it happen.”
The last Digimon virtual pet to get a worldwide release was the 20th Anniversary version (though not named as such for their English versions), released in Japan in 2017 and in the west in 2019. Digimon X launches August 2021, and will be available to pre-order this week.