Hikikomori[0] are far more common in Japan now. It's a market of usually depressed and anxious people, who have been overworked to the point where they don't want to interact with the outside world, but still get lonely. The stigma around it is fading.

That seems like a decent market to start with. (Though the ethical side of me feels slightly queasy.)

[0] http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/11/asia/japanese-millennials-...

The original AIBOs were also $2K-$3K each. The tech's price has dropped quite a bit since the early 2000s, and I imagine there's more demand at lower price points.

Edit: Apparently the new one will be selling for about the same price? Yeah, in that case they'll probably have the same problems as before.

Sphero is selling toy robots like hot cakes.

This one is cloud based. It can collect all kinds of valuable private data for Sony.

This might be a good companion for elderly people.