Harvest Moon was already big. But Stardew Valley had excellent timing coming out right at a time when the HM name had changed hands and a poorly received title had just released. Then the original devs changed to the name Story of Seasons which people liked again.
Sounds right I didn't recall the details, just that the real devs had to change names and the publisher decided to outsource and profit off just the name.
HM had been pretty niche for years at that. The last time you saw people really talking about it was HM64. It and Rune Factory spent the following decades being "too anime" to make a big wave.
Hmm I'm not huge into it it's more the wife thing but I play with her as something we can do together, but I remember Friends of Mineral Town and A Wonderful Life being quite popular. Both recently got remakes even.
They were popular relatively, but among people who were already fans of the series and genre. Most people weren't gonna stumble into them randomly and pick it up on a whim. Popular amongst the already niche crowd.
Stardew went mainstream popular, which is a whole different beast.
Harvest Moon was already big. But Stardew Valley had excellent timing coming out right at a time when the HM name had changed hands and a poorly received title had just released. Then the original devs changed to the name Story of Seasons which people liked again.
Xsneed had to change the name to Story of Seasons because Natsume held the rights to Harvest Moon.
Sounds right I didn't recall the details, just that the real devs had to change names and the publisher decided to outsource and profit off just the name.
HM had been pretty niche for years at that. The last time you saw people really talking about it was HM64. It and Rune Factory spent the following decades being "too anime" to make a big wave.
Hmm I'm not huge into it it's more the wife thing but I play with her as something we can do together, but I remember Friends of Mineral Town and A Wonderful Life being quite popular. Both recently got remakes even.
They were popular relatively, but among people who were already fans of the series and genre. Most people weren't gonna stumble into them randomly and pick it up on a whim. Popular amongst the already niche crowd.
Stardew went mainstream popular, which is a whole different beast.