Tamagotchi-Imitators Flood U.S. Toy Market With New Digital Pets Original Toy’s Popularity Sparks Virtual Population Explosion

It all began with the chicken - or maybe it was the egg.

Since the first Tamagotchi, or egg-shaped computer game that simulates the life cycle of a pet, was hatched in Japan seven months ago, there’s been a population explosion of virtual animals. Toy manufacturers and software makers have been rolling out a menagerie of bits and bytes in cyberspace, as well as on CD-ROMs, wristbands and the ends of key chains.

Other companies are hoping to replicate the success of Bandai Co., the Japanese toymaker that has sold more than 12 million Tamagotchis worldwide.

Tiger Electronics has introduced Giga Pets, and Hong Kong-based Playmates Toys Holdings Ltd. has spawned Nano Pets.

Smaller Tamagotchiimitators abound.

Bernd Schmitt, associate professor of marketing at Columbia University”s business school in New York, believes the key to the success of digital pets lies in the high level of user involvement. To keep their electronic pets alive, owners must feed, clean, play with and sometimes even discipline them. Neglected virtual pets, like real ones, become feeble and die. “Users are forming an emotional bond with the product,” Schmitt said.

Yet even with the proliferation of a cyber-animal kingdom, finding a digital critter on store shelves has become as rare as sighting an endangered species in the wild. Tamagotchis were introduced in the Washington area in early May, but retailers still can’t keep them in stock.

Virtual pets are the latest must-have product, following such other hot properties as Beanie Babies and Tickle Me Elmo. “These things are funny - they throw up on you, they poop. They have a sense of humor,” said Merrie Spaeth, president of Spaeth Communications, a strategic marketing firm.

Virtual pets are part of a recent trend in which companies try to sell customers not only a product but an overall “aesthetic experience,” said Schmitt, who coauthored a book on this subject to be published next month with Alex Simonson, an assistant professor at Georgetown University’s School of Business.

Contrary to popular belief, the Tamagotchi is not a chicken, said Mary Woodworth, a spokeswoman for Bandai. But everyone still thinks it’s some type of poultry, because each creature is born out of what looks like a plastic Foster Farm egg.

Hunting down Tamagotchis and their many knockoffs requires plenty of persistence and a touch of luck. Toni Azinger of Parrish, Fla., who was in town recently with her husband, Paul, a golfer who tied for 28th place in the U.S. Open, had searched toy stores for more than a week for Tamagotchis until she happened upon a just-arrived mother lode at the FAO Schwarz in Georgetown.

Now her daughters, Sarah Jean, 11, and Josie, 8, each own a Tamagotchi and they carry them wherever they go. Sarah Jean’s key-chain pet lives in a transparent blue egg, while her sister’s is in a white one.

Sarah Jean showed off her baby pet. “It’s a blob still,” she said, pointing at the digital amoeba bobbing up and down.

Toy stores report getting more than 50 calls each day asking for virtual pets, most of them queries about Tamagotchis. “It’s overwhelming. It’s insane. We’ve been getting calls from Japan,” said Patrick Hannon, operations manager for FAO Schwarz of Georgetown. “Sometimes (Japanese tourists) come in saying: ‘Tamagotchi? Tamagotchi?’ It’s the only word they can speak. They’re crazy about Tamagotchis.”

Compared with the hand-held variety, software virtual animals are fairly easy to come by. Fujitsu Interactive sells CD-ROMs of half-bird, half-dolphin creatures through retailers, and PF.Magic even sells its Catz and Dogz directly through its Web site. Virtual pet enthusiasts also have posted free hamster shareware on the Internet.

But for now, the palm-sized critters are almost impossible to find. Emily Yamahiro, a 10th-grader from Potomac, Md., said she felt lucky to inherit a Tamagotchi from a friend. Her friend grew tired of it, but Emily has grown attached. “I feel like a little mother. I like taking care of it,” she said.