I want a 'Ferretz' game. Thats right Ubi, if you make a single copy and sell it to me, it'll be the fastest sell out of a video game ever. You'll need a stop watch.

Salen

I remember back in the day playing Dogz 2. then after the inevitable Catz then some more things then got eated by ubisoft when they were still little.

ha the memories, and trying to allow my parents to let us buy dogz over the phone to america when they still didnt trust the internet.

Murdats

I seem to remember that somebody here on kotaku said that with a "z" at the end of the word, it is trademark-able.

FranUnFine

The first sighting of the Z suffix was when PF Magic released a fighting game called Ballz, where the characters were built procedurally out of spheres.

Petz, Catz and Dogz were based off that same concept, albeit without the fighting and more clucking over cartoon critters.

Retropants regrets nothing

@Glen-L-Ivet:
I shudder to think what the world would be like if we had shoddy knock-offs of the "Petz" series. . .

TrjnRabbit

@Manny: Whaaaa? Splinter Cell? Assassin's Creed? Rainbow Six? Ghost Recon? None of these titles were made by Ubisoft? Also, EndWar. The beta is awesome.

The Magnificen7

maybe by adding the Z at the end of various titles, people will soon be able to relate to the company and their overuse of a letter.

ittekimasu

I remember the old PF Magic "Dogz" game. You had a cartoon dog running around your PC desktop who you could feed, train and randomly spray with water.

It really was Nintendogs a decade earlier than Nintendo did it. And it was better in a way, because you could have the dog running around the screen (or sleeping in its kennel) while you were using your PC for other things. It was an amusing distraction... for the week or so before you got get bored with it and uninstalled.

IIRC, it also worked as a pretty cool little screensaver.

Marlor

who cares what Ubisoft does any more. They haven't made a good game in years.

Acclaim - Atari - Ubisoft

I'm calling it.

Manny

I like to imagine that the developers working on the Petz series all wear baseball caps backwards and make "NOT!" jokes whenever possible.

Thinking about it, I think one of them must have provided the voice for the DJ in Burnout Paradise...

Kazzahdrane

Yeah 2008 is so like 1995...Am I rightz?

Pluz itz coolz. To use Z is etxremeezz!

excaliburps

The Z makes the game seem hip and cool, with plenty of 90's 'attitude'.

dangerman_

My two cents here is that you can trademark Petz with a "z" but "Pets" is a common domain word and they wouldn't be able to get a trademark.

'Cause you wouldn't want a whole slew of knock off "Pets" games of dubious quality...

Glen-L-Ivet

the correct answer is "because we are fucking retarded"

Detre

To me the "z" at the end means a shovelware title :3

Kaizuden

I actually had the original Catz on PC many years ago. It was an alright pet simulator. Preferred my real cats though.

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

@happycodemonkey: Oh? Ok. Well, better make it 3 then, since I know a friend who'd probably want a copy as well, or if not, I'll buy it for them as a present. :)

Still, make it happen Ubi! *SNAP SNAP*

Salen

I am also in the camp that played the original Dogz/Catz games. Got up to the fourth edition, though I got 4 for free. I also have Oddballz laying around, that was pretty entertaining for a while.

Asfad

The PC desktop Dogz and Catz games were commercial variations of a little freeware cat called Neko, which chases your cursor around the screen for a while, then yawns and takes a nap. It's still available for Windows at:
[www.geocities.com]

Dunno if there is an alternative "iNeko" for Macs or any penguin buddies for Linux.

Knukleur

@Salen: Have them make two so I can buy one too :P

happycodemonkey

Um, if "nobody else is doing it" why do they think it is "coming back into fashion"?

Eltigro

[www.focusmm.co.uk]

This is how the world ends. How do you even pronounce that word?

Sunjammer

they should make DragonBallZ...u knew that comment was coming

ejpal

As long as they're selling, they don't care what we think...

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

*public

KM91

Here is my pubic service announcement: Adding the letter "Z" tp the end of any word doesn't make it cool.

KM91

Intentional misspelling sux

Hugoku

@The Magnificen7: Assassin's Creed is hardly more than mediocre. Funny thing is I'm playing through it a second time at the moment (literally, I have the game paused). Just going for that additional memory so I don't have to play it again for yeeeeeeears.

Americo

@ejpal:

oh ZING!

Dakobah

@KM91:
kotaku field reporter informs us: frequent exposure to ubisoft shovelware leads area man to pubez related freudian slip. onlookers and bystanders approve.

loopholezero

It's leet speek, like warez. I guess Ubisoft is into the warez scene.

mikeha

Title should read

"Why does Ubisoft ..."

stonefry

You're forgetting Splinter Cell, Beyond Good and Evil, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon...Prince of Persia...

Yeah, a bunch of games that used to be good 6 or 7 years ago back when Ubisoft were good.

dowingba

@The Magnificen7: You forgot Beyond Good & Evil.

Whenever I see the letter 'Z' replacing 'S' at the end of anything I just get a little irritated. It's like the President and VP of Marketing at Ubisoft are Bebop and Rocksteady.

jBusiness

Its pretty Xtreme, thats why.

PsycheE

That interview is ineffably awesome.

"we feel that our Petz line will explode, and we need to raise the quality of the game to make sure that no competitor will steal our position as pet people."

"That's right. It's a lot about Toyota right now, but it's more about Corolla. We have to do it. Since there's no Corolla logo, it's not as strong a brand as Toyota. We're not sure how we're going to handle that in the game, so we'll fix that. But the thing is, Corolla is trying to position itself as the young family kind of car. That's why it's there."

alitcofsky

Pretty much all fucking up the words in your game's title ("Petz," "Xtreme," "U," etc.) does from my viewpoint is make your game sound cheap and crappy.

Seriously, it's jarring to me every time I'm reminded that these games are made by Ubisoft, because the titles strike me as games made either by people with 3rd grade educations, or by those who don't even qualify as goddamn people at all.

Kainy

mudkipz

scruffy, the janitor

I played the PF Magic game back in the day. The best part was getting your dogs to mate so you could get all sorts of crazy mutts. And, the amount of time until the dog was born was based on the Windows system clock, so you could just set the clock forward a few days, and presto, new pup.

greatslack

To be hip and kool and jazz and fresh! We're down with the kidz and their bumpin music!

Talleh

Why annoy everyone with just one z? They should really be using at least five of them.

Chilibob