[3] The computer was launched in Japan in 1982, and in the UK and the United States in the next year.

The company stated that its documentation would let an eight-year-old child use the computer without adult supervision.

[5] One of the major flaws pointed out with the Tutor was not its hardware, but its marketing: the Tutor was announced as a children's computer when in fact it was practically a cheap, evolved version of the TI-99/4A, even having a similar 16-bit CPU (the TMS9995, closely related to the TI-99/4's TMS 9900);[3] other competitors in its price range still used 8-bit microprocessors.

In Japan, Tomy set a sales target of about 90,000 units and ¥5 billion revenue for the first year by selling Pyūta to elementary and junior high school students as a "drawing computer", having nearly 40,000 units shipped in its first 4 months as of August 1982.

[1] On the other hand, the Tutor did not sell well against the ZX Spectrum in the UK and the Commodore 64 in other countries outside Japan.