The History of Tamagotchi and Virtual Pet Games – From Digimon and Nintendogs to My Talking Tom
How virtual pet games grew from Bandai's 1996 Tamagotchi through Digital Monster, Nintendogs, and My Talking Tom, and how the genre is designed around time, care loops, and attachment.
Virtual pet games are games in which you feed, clean, play with, and look after a creature on a screen. Instead of defeating enemies or crossing a finish line, the core of play is the question "Is my pet doing well?" Even without a clear win or loss, these games get many people to open their devices every day, holding players in a way that differs from most other genres.
In this post, we trace the path from on-screen computer pets to Bandai's Tamagotchi in 1996, the fighting pet Digital Monster, Nintendogs on the Nintendo DS, and My Talking Tom on smartphones. At the end, we look at the three design elements that define the genre: the passage of time, the care loop, and attachment.
At a Glance
| Year | Title | Company | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Dogz | PF.Magic | A dog on a PC screen, later expanded into the Petz series |
| 1996 | Tamagotchi | Bandai (co-created with WiZ) | Egg-shaped handheld, a pet cared for with three buttons |
| 1997 | Digital Monster | Bandai, WiZ | Pets that battle by linking devices; the start of Digimon |
| 2004 | Tamagotchi Connection | Bandai | Tamagotchi relaunch with infrared communication |
| 2005 | Nintendogs | Nintendo | Uses the Nintendo DS touchscreen and microphone |
| 2010 | Talking Tom Cat | Outfit7 | A cat app that repeats what you say |
| 2013 | My Talking Tom | Outfit7 | A cat-raising game for smartphones |
Before Tamagotchi: Cats and Dogs on the Screen
The idea of putting a small animal on a computer screen came before Tamagotchi. Neko, a cat program that chases the mouse cursor, is often cited as the earliest desktop pet. At that time, however, the term "virtual pet" was not yet in use, and such programs were closer to screen decorations.
The work usually credited with offering a real "raising" experience is Dogz, released in 1995 by the American company PF.Magic. A cat version, Catz, followed in the spring of 1996, and the two were later grouped into the Petz series. Players petted dogs and cats inside the PC screen, fed them, threw toys, and watched how they reacted.
These PC pets first showed one pillar of the genre: bonding with a character that moves like a real animal. But they had a limit—you could only meet them while sitting at a computer. Tamagotchi, which fit in a pocket, broke that limit.
The Arrival of Tamagotchi (1996)
Tamagotchi is a handheld virtual pet device released by Bandai in Japan on November 23, 1996. It was created by Aki Maita of Bandai and Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ. The name combines the Japanese word tamago (egg) with "watch," a trace of the early concept of a device worn like a wristwatch. It was released in the United States on May 1, 1997.
The device is an egg shape small enough to hang on a keychain and is operated with three buttons. Once you set the clock, an egg appears on the screen, and after a short while it hatches into a small creature. The player checks hunger and mood, gives meals and snacks, plays mini-games, cleans up droppings, gives medicine when the pet is sick, and turns off the light when it falls asleep.
Tamagotchi's defining trait is that how the pet grows depends on how it is cared for. The type of adult character is decided by the care it received through the baby, child, and teen stages. Good care leads to a character that needs less attention; poor care leads to one that does not. And if you leave the pet uncared for too long, it can die. This irreversible outcome was what made Tamagotchi feel like more than a simple toy.
Tamagotchi became a huge fad in a short time. According to English Wikipedia, the original Tamagotchi sold about 40 million units worldwide during its run, and shortages were common. But the craze cooled quickly around 1998, and Bandai took a large loss because of overproduced stock.
The fad also brought controversy. Because the pets demanded attention even during class and children took their pets' deaths to heart, a number of schools in the United States and South Korea banned the devices. Aki Maita and Akihiro Yokoi received the 1997 Ig Nobel Prize in Economics, an episode that still illustrates how much of people's time Tamagotchi took up.
The Fighting Pet: Digital Monster
After Tamagotchi's success, Bandai and WiZ made a separate pet device aimed at boys: Digital Monster, released in Japan on June 26, 1997. During development, it went by a name meaning "boy's Tamagotchi."
Digital Monster shares Tamagotchi's basic care—feeding, cleaning up droppings, and turning off the light. On top of that, it added training to build strength and a battle mode in which two devices connect so the players' monsters can fight. The result of care now showed not only in how cute a pet grew, but also in how strong it became.
According to English Wikipedia, the first Digital Monster device released in 1997 sold 14 million units worldwide by March 2004. The device became the starting point of the Digimon series, which expanded into games, anime, and card games. In January 1999, Digimon World for PlayStation was released in Japan, and it too centered on raising Digimon by feeding and training them.
Digital Monster showed that virtual pets could expand toward collecting and battling. The structure of raising and evolving monsters to compete with other players can be seen again in many later monster-raising games.
The Return of Tamagotchi
After a quiet period, Tamagotchi returned with a new model in 2004. Released in North America as Tamagotchi Connection, it could link with other Tamagotchi via infrared to interact. To avoid repeating the mistakes of the first boom, Bandai released it carefully with restrained advertising.
Since then, Tamagotchi has kept releasing new versions, adding features such as color screens, connectivity with other devices, and character customization. English Wikipedia lists cumulative sales of the Tamagotchi series at over 98 million units as of 2025. Rather than ending as a passing fad, it has long kept a place among children's toys in Japan.
Onto Handheld Consoles: Nintendogs
In 2005, Nintendo released Nintendogs for the Nintendo DS. It launched first in Japan and then in other regions, initially in three versions with different sets of dog breeds.
Nintendogs tied the DS hardware directly to acts of care. Rubbing the touchscreen lets you pet your dog, throw a ball or disc, and brush its coat. Calling its name into the microphone gets a reaction, and repeating words like "sit" teaches it tricks. Compared with choosing "feed" from a button menu, the feeling of caring directly with your hands and voice became much stronger.
The passage of time also uses the system's clock and calendar. Even while the game is off, time passes and the dog gets hungry and dirty. Unlike Tamagotchi, however, the dogs in Nintendogs never age or die. Their condition worsens without care, but nothing is irreversible. Walks, disc competitions, and agility trials give players daily goals.
Nintendogs was a major success. According to English Wikipedia, all versions combined sold 23.96 million copies as of March 31, 2016, making it the second best-selling Nintendo DS game. A sequel, Nintendogs + Cats, was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2011.
Pet Raising in the Smartphone Era
Smartphones turned out to suit virtual pets well. People carry them everywhere, they can send notifications, and they have a touchscreen, microphone, and camera.
On June 26, 2010, Slovenian company Outfit7 released Talking Tom Cat. It was a simple app in which a grey cat named Tom repeated what the user said in a high-pitched voice. It was not a raising game at first, but with My Talking Tom, released on November 11, 2013, it became a full pet-raising game. Players feed baby Tom, take him to the bathroom, play mini-games with him, and tuck him into bed when he is sleepy, raising him into a grown cat. A sequel, My Talking Tom 2, followed in 2018.
Many mobile pet games are free to download and let players buy clothes and furniture with in-game currency. Coins come from mini-games or watching ads, and new customization items unlock as you level up. This can be seen as decoration, collection, and reward systems stacked on top of a care loop. Meanwhile, because the genre has many young users, ad practices have sometimes become an issue—for example, in 2015 the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled on a case in which an age-inappropriate ad was shown in the game.
The Design of the Genre: Time, Care Loops, and Attachment
Looking across these eras, virtual pet games rest on a few shared design ideas.
The Passage of Time
A virtual pet's time keeps flowing even while the player has the game turned off. Tamagotchi used a built-in clock; Nintendogs used the DS clock and calendar. This makes the pet feel like a being that lives on even while you are away. At the same time, how strictly time is applied is an important choice. Too strict, and you lose your pet on a busy day; too loose, and there is no reason to care for it.
The Care Loop
Most titles center on a short cycle: check status, meet needs, let time pass, check status again. Values such as hunger, cleanliness, mood, and sleepiness drop over time, and the player refills them. A single round of care takes seconds to minutes but repeats several times a day. Longer goals—growth stages, evolution, competitions, and customization—are added so the short cycle does not become dull.
Attachment
What most sets virtual pets apart from other raising games is the attachment players feel toward the character. As players give it a name, call it with their voice, and get a response when they pet it, the pet becomes more than a bundle of numbers. This attachment is also why children in the Tamagotchi era cared so much that schools banned the devices.
The Weight of Consequences
What designers think about most is what happens when the player does not provide care. Tamagotchi let pets die, creating a strong sense of responsibility; Nintendogs removed death and aging and only let condition worsen, lowering the burden. Heavy consequences deepen immersion but can wear players out; light consequences make long-term play easier but reduce tension. Rather than one right answer, it is a matter of finding the balance for the intended audience.