Petz
Petz is a series of single-player video games dating back to 1995, in which the player can adopt, raise, care for and breed their own virtual pets. Developed by PF.Magic, original Petz has sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide. The series has grown to over 22 million copies as of 2011 since coming under Ubisoft.
Development
The original Petz games — Dogz: Your Computer Pet and Catz: Your Computer Pet—were developed by PF.Magic, released in 1995 and 1996 respectively. They reused the graphics engine used Ballz. Rob Fulop conceived of Dogz, following the controversy surrounding his previous title Night Trap, which resulted in him wanting to make a game that was "so cute and so adorable that no could ever, ever say it was bad for kids". He claims to have consulted a shopping mall Santa Claus about what children wanted, and was informed that puppies were the most popular request every year.Following the success the company, instead of continuing to branch out into other household pets, developed Oddballz, focused on Chimeraic and mutatable creatures. This would release along with sequels to the Dogz and Catz.
In 1997, PF.Magic was acquired by The Learning Company's Mindscape division for $15.8 million in 1998. In 2001, Ubi Soft acquired the entertainment division of The Learning Company, granting Ubisoft exclusive publishing rights to 88 titles, including Dogz and Catz.
Ubisoft would publish Catz 5 and Dogz 5, in 2002, as the last games following the original style, before putting franchise on hold for three years. After releasing Dogz and Catz for the Game Boy Advance in 2005 and 2006, Ubisoft announced their intention for a "revitalisation" of the series, in direct response to the success of Nintendo's Nintendogs. The successive entries were in many ways very different from the P.F. magic games, with many being localised games from Japan or Europe—simply rebranded with the Petz name.
In, 2010 Ubisoft announced its intention to publish a Frima Studios developed Petz themed MMO under the title Petz World, which they expected to be released in 2011. No further announcements have been subsequently made, and no such game was ever released.
Ubisoft would continue releasing entries until 2014.
Animals
The initial games were limited to dogz and catz, but additional animals were also introduced. These animals include Pigz, Bunnyz, Monkeyz, Dolphinz, and Hamsterz, some of which received their own games.Users learned how to reverse-engineer the system, and began producing additional breedz, toyz, playscenes, clothes, and developer tools for the games, as permitted by PF.Magic, Mindscape, and Ubisoft.
Reception
The original software was generally well received, with The Salt Lake Tribune giving 1995's Dogz 4 out of 5 stars, and PC Zone and Entertainment Weekly giving Catz an 8/10 and B+ respectively. However, later games were less well received, in particularly compared to other virtual pet experiences that were available, with the 1999 Game Boy Color games negatively compared to Tamagotchi, and 2005's Dogz for the Game Boy Advance, being seen as an attempt to ape Nintendogs.By 2007, Joystiq recommended buying games in the series only for "people you hate". On the other hand, a 2008 feature in Game Developer opined that Ubisoft's "casual titles"—specifically mentioning the Petz and Imagine series—had distinguished themselves by being "well-made non-shovelware" that didn't try to "take advantage of the innocence of the target market."
The Petz games developed by P.F. Magic grew a dedicated online community that, including a community of "Hexers", who would edit the games files to create custom petz. Game designer Nathalie Lawhead speculates this was part of the reason for its success and enduring legacy.