Editing Virtual pet (section)

==History==
{{See also|List of artificial pet games}}

The first-known virtual pet was a screen-cursor chasing cat called [[Neko (software)|Neko]]. It was rather called a "desktop pet" since at that time the term "virtual pet" did not exist.

[[PF.Magic]] released the first widely popular virtual pets in 1995 with ''[[Dogz]]'',<ref>{{cite journal|title=Save on dog food|author=Rita Koselka|journal=[[Forbes]]|date=1996-12-02|pages=237–238}}</ref> followed by ''[[Catz: Your Computer Pet|Catz]]'' in the spring of 1996, eventually becoming a franchise known as ''[[Petz]]''. The digital pets were further popularized when [[Tamagotchi]]<ref>{{Cite news|date=2004-02-04|title=Tamagotchi reborn as an adult|language=en-GB|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3457705.stm|access-date=2021-03-01|archive-date=21 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220321174246/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3457705.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Digimon]] were introduced in 1996 and 1997.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-04-12|title=Remember Tamagotchi? The 1990s' cult toys are back|url=https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/remember-tamagotchi-the-90s-cult-toys-are-back|url-status=live|access-date=2021-03-01|website=The Straits Times|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170412122749/http://www.straitstimes.com/tech/remember-tamagotchi-the-90s-cult-toys-are-back |archive-date=12 April 2017 }}</ref>

Digital pets like Tamagotchi and Digimon were a massive [[fad]] across [[Japan]], the [[United States]] and [[United Kingdom]] during the late 1990s. Today, there are also "Digital Pets" which have physical robotic bodies, known as [[Ludobot]]s or [[entertainment robot]]s.

From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, virtual pets specialized to be official mascots of personal websites known as "cyber pets" (or "cyberpets") could be especially seen in websites hosted with [[GeoCities]], Tripod, or [[Angelfire]]. There were also webpages which allowed users to "adopt" cyber pets for their websites.