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Zoo Tycoon is a business simulation game developed by Blue Fang Games and released by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh in 2001. A version for the Nintendo DS was released in 2005, as Zoo Tycoon DS. It was followed by two expansion packs, Dinosaur Digs and Marine Mania, which were released in 2002, as well as a sequel, Zoo Tycoon 2, released in 2004.
Gameplay
left|thumb|190px|A basic zoo with [[giraffes in one enclosure]]
The goal of Zoo Tycoon is to create a thriving zoo by building exhibits to accommodate animals and keeping the guests and animals happy. Exhibit-building is one of the primary goals of Zoo Tycoon. To keep the guests and animals happy, exhibits should be suitable to the animal; for example, a lion is best suited to a savannah environment. The team then pivoted to a zoo building game, and quickly began research on animal care and behavior, sending artists, animators and developers to zoos in and around the Boston area, as well as flying a team out to the San Francisco Zoo. The team learned how zoos work in order to figure out where they were allowed to take creative liberties, citing that during the development for the Marine Mania expansion, the team gave dolphins the ability to do tricks that were not completely realistic because they thought it was more fun.
Reception
Zoo Tycoon was received with mixed to positive reviews, gaining an average 68 out of 100 at Metacritic. GameZone gave the game a score of 8 out of 10. Eric Bratcher reviewed the PC version of the game for Next Generation, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "A pleasant diversion, but it's about as deep as a puddle, and frustratingly finicky." Zoo Tycoon and its compiled Complete Collection garnered several awards and accolades, gaining the Bologna New Media Prize in 2002. Zoo Tycoon: Complete Collection received the Parents' Choice Foundation Gold Award - 2003, the AIAS Computer Family Game of the Year Interactive Achievement Award - 2004, the Scholastic Parent & Child Teacher's Pick – 2004, and the Children's Software Revue All Star Award – 2004.
Sales
Zoo Tycoon was a commercial success. By October 2003, its global sales had surpassed 2.5 million copies, or 3 million when grouped with its expansion packs. The NPD Group declared it the eighth-best-selling computer game of 2002, and the 11th-best-selling of 2003. NPD proceeded to rank the game's Zoo Tycoon: Complete Collection bundle 10th for 2004, 16th for 2005 and 12th for 2006.
In the United States alone, Zoo Tycoon sold 1.1 million units and earned $28.2 million by August 2006. and Edge ranked it as the country's fifth-best-selling computer game released between January 2000 and August 2006. Zoo Tycoon also received a "Gold" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom; and a "Gold" certification from the (VUD), for sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
The Zoo Tycoon series, including the original Zoo Tycoon, surpassed 4 million copies in global sales by July 2004. Over 2 million copies of the series were sold in the United States alone by that date.