A Furby (plural Furbys or Furbies, according to Tiger Electronics.) is a popular electronic toy or robot, more specifically, a hamster/owl-like creature made by Tiger Electronics, which went through a time of being the "must-have" toy following its launch in the winter holiday season of 1998, with continuing sales until 2000. Furbies sold 1.8 million units in 1998, 14 million units in 1999, and altogether in its three years of original production, Furby sold over 40 million units, and its speaking capabilities were translated into 24 languages. A video game of the Furbies was released in 1998 by Hasbro Interactive with many activities. Furbies were the first successful attempt to produce and sell a programmed robot. In 2005, new Furbies were released, with voice-recognition and more complex facial movements, among many other changes and improvements. There was a common mistake that they repeated words that were said around them. This belief most likely came from the fact that it is possible to have the Furby say certain pre-programmed words or phrases more often by petting it whenever it said these words. As a result of this myth, several intelligence agencies banned them from their offices.