Harvest Moon
GameBy Amccus · Released Aug 9, 1996
Ever wanted to live life on a farm, with nothing but the sun, the fresh scent of your crops, the muddy fields underneath, and cows and chickens to keep you company? Well, you're in luck, because you have just inherited your grandfather's ranch, but it's in a terrible state of disrepair! What ever can you do?
Connections
Each row is a game or company named alongside Harvest Moon, each column a document, oldest first. A mark means that document names it. Select a row to see those documents.
About the game
- Released
- Aug 9, 1996
- Developers
- Amccus, Pack-In-Video
- Publishers
- Natsume Inc., St. GIGA, Nintendo
- Genres
- Role-playing (RPG), Simulator, Strategy, Adventure
- Platforms
- Satellaview, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Wii, Wii U, Super Famicom
- Links
- Official site, Wikipedia
Game data from IGDB.com
Documents about Harvest Moon
Design Club: Hooked on Fishing!
Fishing mini-games have evolved from niche simulation elements into a ubiquitous design staple across the global gaming industry.
- Fishing mini-games are popular in MMOs like Final Fantasy 14, World of Warcraft, and Elder Scrolls Online because they encourage players to revisit older, underutilized zones, effectively increasing the longevity of existing game content.
- From a development perspective, fishing systems are considered 'low lift' to implement, requiring minimal art assets and simple database-driven logic compared to complex features like new combat spells or character classes.
- Fishing serves as a tool for environmental immersion, allowing developers to force players to pause and appreciate scenic vistas, weather cycles, and time-of-day transitions in a semi-living world.
September's Packed Schedule
September’s release calendar is densely packed, with a cluster of high-profile titles slated for mid-to-late September across multiple platforms.
- The U.S. gaming market grew to 212.3 million players in 2026, an increase from 205.1 million the previous year.
- September features a highly competitive release calendar, with major titles like Marvel’s Wolverine (Sept 15), Dune Awakening (Sept 22), and a cluster of releases on Sept 24, including Silent Hill Townfall and Dragon Quest XI S, strategically scheduled to avoid the November launch of Grand Theft Auto VI.
- The Tokyo Game Show (Sept 17–22) is driving a surge in Japanese software releases, with multiple titles from publishers like Konami, Capcom, and Square Enix launching immediately following the event.
The Strange Descent of the Cozy Farming Sim
The evolution of the cozy farming simulator genre is defined by a process of familial descent, where new titles emerge as iterative responses to established predecessors rather than entirely original concepts.
- Stardew Valley has achieved global sales of over 41 million copies as of late 2024, cementing its status as the primary evolution of the farming simulator genre.
- The cozy farming genre operates through a lineage-based development model where new titles iteratively refine the foundational mechanics established by the 1996 release of Harvest Moon.
- Community-driven projects like Stardew Valley Expanded have reached over 20 million downloads, demonstrating a symbiotic relationship between core products and their derivative modifications.
There is no going back for the video game industry
The video game industry has undergone a permanent structural transformation, moving away from traditional, product-based retail models toward a network-driven ecosystem.
- The video game industry has permanently shifted from a retail-based product model to a network-driven ecosystem where platforms like Fortnite and Roblox function as social utilities competing with social media giants.
- The traditional development model is financially unsustainable, as production budgets for major titles have ballooned to $300 million while long development cycles fail to generate proportional market demand.
- AI-driven automation is being deployed to reduce costs in mobile gaming, specifically replacing roles in level testing and user acquisition, which has contributed to widespread workforce downsizing.
Cozy Games on Live Streaming with Lushfoil Photography Sim
The cozy gaming genre has experienced significant growth on live-streaming platforms, driven by a post-pandemic audience seeking stress relief and decompression.
- Quarterly hours watched for streams containing the word “cozy” on Twitch and YouTube Gaming nearly doubled from 3.6M to 7M over the past two years.
- Farming, Life, and Business Management simulators dominate the cozy genre, with Farming and Life Sims seeing 96% and 89% of their respective viewership concentrated in just two titles per category, such as Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
- The number of streamers using “cozy” in their stream titles grew from 7,000 in Q3 2024 to 9,100 in Q4 2024, reflecting a broader trend of creators capitalizing on the genre's pandemic-driven popularity.
Plus: New Switch eShop Trending Charts and Steam Hype Updates
This analysis introduces a new methodology for tracking performance on the Nintendo Switch eShop while providing updates on Steam market trends.
- Nintendo first-party titles account for approximately 50% of the top 20 rankings on the UK Switch eShop.
- Small-scale titles on the Switch platform can generate between $100,000 and $200,000 in gross revenue through strategic discounting.
- Niche 'chill' farming and village simulation games, such as Story of Seasons and Harvest Moon, demonstrate significant market strength on the Switch.
MarvelousAQL Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2012 Financial Results
MarvelousAQL’s fiscal year ended March 31, 2012, marked a transformative period for the company, defined by its strategic merger with AQ Interactive Inc. and Liveware Inc.
- MarvelousAQL reported net sales of 10,423 million yen and net income of 3,533 million yen for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012.
- The company achieved a significant net income boost due to the booking of deferred tax assets and a gain on negative goodwill resulting from the merger with AQ Interactive Inc. and Liveware Inc.
- Management projects strong growth for the upcoming fiscal year, forecasting net sales of 18,500 million yen and operating income of 2,200 million yen.