Do you think the rise of cozy gaming is partly due to the current… dystopian reality? Something else?
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Do you think the rise of cozy gaming is partly due to the current… dystopian reality? Something else?
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Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon, two of the OG cozy games, go back to the 90s! And there are still plenty of action games that come out and do great.
There is of course a real rise in cozy games, but I think this graphic really overstates it and doesn’t hit the real reasons. One reason is that I think gaming companies are more willing to market to women, who are often more likely than men to openly seek out and enjoy cozy games. It’s more socially acceptable now for anyone to play a “girl” game too.
I do think the graphic has some merit in that I think the rise in cottage core is partially a response to the world around us, and cozy games are often cottage core. But it’s more complicated than just that.
Cosy games have been around since I was a kid.
I think it’s a bit overdrawn to blame it on current events, honestly. I think there are some other, very simple reasons why cozy gaming has gotten so popular:
– it’s never been easier to publish indie games. A lot of the cozy games are made by indie publishers. With indie games, there’s always less of a demand to serve the general public, allowing for more niche genres.
– a lot of cozy games are published on nintendo switch. A lot of people who have never gamed before got a switch during the pandemic, a lot of cozy games are available on phones as well. So gaming as a whole has gotten a lot more accessible, creating more space for games that aren’t typical.
– stardew valley is just so pivotal. It think it both showed that there is demand for these types of games, but perhaps also showed audiences how good cozy games can be.
– Most popular games are still action based. I don’t really agree with the idea that cozy gaming is the most dominant genre right now.
Sorry if this isn’t entirely coherent or comes across as aggresive! I’m ill right now, so my head feels like cotton, and I’m not able to phrase everything exactly right!
I mean the first Animal Crossing came out in 2001 (I know the switch one wasn’t the first one crazy) I wouldn’t say the times we live in has anything to do with it
For me, it’s mostly because I’m exhausted all the time. When I get home from a stressful work day, make dinner, get the kid to bed, the last thing I want is to do something that raises my adrenaline. I want something relaxing before bed.
I also wonder if it has to do with the fact that a lot of these games involve socialization with NPCs, while we’re in the middle of a so-called loneliness epidemic. I don’t really have close friends anymore so life sims are a nice social outlet too.
I think it’s due to a lot of factors.
1. Part of it is that the generation that grew up with Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons grew up and decided to make their own games. Hell Stardew itself is a response to ConcernedApe’s frustration with the direction Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons took.
2. Another part of it is, like you pointed out, shit is going to hell and people need outlets to get through their day. Cozy games where life is simple and you don’t have to think help fill that void.
3. I think part of it is also a backlash to those hyper violent games from the 2010’s. For a long time the only games that got taken seriously were ones that indulged in violence – and ever since Undertale came out it’s been more acceptable for games to just sit and ruminate on more calming emotions. The boom could be seen as just a natural progression of that trend.
I mean, standard d&d fantasy games have been consistent throughout all of that.
Sports ones too I’d assume.
Pretty shallow/narrow view of gaming in history isn’t it? This person is probably just speaking about their own experience with games.
There were a lot of other games or genres with equal or more popularity to sci-fi (and survivor/horror later on). There were plenty of “cozy” games before but they were just labeled with a more specific genre.
Assuming you specifically mean life sim with affection points for npcs, that wasn’t really done that often due to complexity. Not a lot of gamers would have had the opportunity to play it.
The people who I knew tried Harvest Moon back in the 90’s loved it. It’s not Chrono Trigger, but it doesn’t need to be, and is still considered a good game.
[Image Description:] A screencap of a tweet by Caitlin Spice that says:
“80s video game: here is a fantasy that you are an astronaut blasting asteroids.
90s: no, you’re a badass marine blasting demons.
2000s: time to blast some aliens.
2010s: chop up these zombies.
2020s: here is a fantasy that you have a cosy house, friends, relationships, and food.”
—
I saw someone say those older games were emblematic of their eras, and that that’ll happen when you have a comfortable life– and that cozy games being emblematic of this time period is kinda correlated with how owning a house, having a lush green neighborhood full of friendly neighbors who are really a community is a fantasy for a lot of us now. Never mind food security, being well rested, etc.
I don’t think it’s the *only* reason cozy games have been on the rise, but I do think it’s a contributing factor. Idk, what do you all think?
No, not thinking because of current reality – others have pointed out good coexisting reasons. Games like Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon have been around since 2002 and 1996 respectively. Even Otome games have existed since 90’s. It’s only gotten easier to develop and publish your own game so while there’s many cozy games about everything from running a sticker business to unpacking boxes, I don’t see them as dominating over other genres in news, sales, or rewards.
Some very valid points have come up and I agree with them (namely the impact of Stardew and indie games being easier to market/release especially), but I do think how combative the world has been on recent years has also had a bit of influence at the same time. Covid, politics (especially in America which has actively influenced other countries including my own) and the ‘culture war’ BS online has definitely had an impact for me personally.
When I was in my teens it was prior and during Gamergate, where I played a bunch of shooter games. Part was just wanting dumb fun but it did also expose me to toxicity in the world and masculine posturing. I will admit I fell down a bit of a right wing rabbit hole for a couple of years until I met my ex who showed me the other side and explained things to me from that point of view, which helped me mature and understand the manipulation. After that, I swapped to a lot of co op stuff I could play with her. We broke up and I got into horror more as a bit of a coping mechanism because I’m a dramatic bitch (“wow these people have it worse than me” sort of stuff).
Since Covid first hit I’ve *definitely* noticed my taste has changed to more indie titles and cozy games. Part of it is due to getting sick of PvP toxicity, part is because of the divisiveness in politics Covid spawned but also to an ever-growing view of cynicism towards modern games. Battle passes, season passes, cosmetic packs, in game stores, premium currencies all for full priced games.. It just really left me feeling bitter, which is a core reason I saved for a PS5; to buy physical copies of indie games.
Just in general I’ve focused more on indies and cozy games because the world is just annoying a lot of the time. Playing games to escape helps a lot and before now I’ve never really tried more relaxing titles, but since playing the first Coffee Talk I’ve been much more open to them and I’m happy that’s the case.
Long winded way of saying yes and no, but there you go 😅
I think cosy games aren’t more popular than they ever were I just think they’re more accessible especially on consoles like the switch/DS/psp/vita etc.
A lot of cosy games aren’t games you can play for long periods of time without running out of things or ending up needing to time skip (animal crossing for example) or they’re low stakes and people play on the way home or just cosy after work/school. The Switch has definitely helped cosy games find a more active community, I don’t really see other consoles pushing cosy games as hard as Nintendo does.
Something else. But also yes to dystopia, it’s definitely part of the equation.
There’s probably something to be said about the first generations born with the internet having always been part of their lives are now starting to reach adulthood, and even the concept of social media is old enough to drink. Maybe with age comes a general trend toward cozy media.
But I think a major part of it has been the opening of the medium to more people, and we’re finding out the broader segments of humanity just want to relax and chill when they’re engaging with entertainment. No more is gaming this exclusive medium reserved for a specific personality type or social life, it’s something everyone and their grandma does; with that comes the vast majority of people who want something that’s easy to pick up for an hour or two and just feel good about themselves as they let the day’s stress go.
It’s great. It’s just another step toward people realizing that games are so much more than any single genre or mere entertainment. It’s a step toward the medium being appreciated as an artform, and a step toward finding room for everyone within the gaming community. It also just represents the medium expanding into new and mysterious directions we can only hope to imagine at this point
She can speak for herself. I want a game with the potential for both violence *and* coziness.
It’s because they discovered women have $$$ to spend on games and not all of us enjoy murder hoboing around a landscape.
Fun fact: Asteroids came out at the tail end of 1979.
Fuhhhhhh-what a slap back to reality!
Actually I think it’s because the internet/gaming is our 3rd place. (Other environments we can go to besides home to socialize). We all try to save money now and this is an easy way how. We’ve all done the fantasy thing and we want some semi-realistic cozy games to add to the mix to feel comfy and forget about the troubles of the world. I think there are a lot of other reasons to this which people have mentioned but, I think it’s a HUGE part of the popularity of cozy gaming.
I take it you haven’t yet played Sim Ant or Sim Farm? Both 90’s-era DOS/Win95 games. Pretty sure they are cozy.
I would say the growth is just companies trying to expand the market in general. Gaming is a lot more “acceptable” now than in the 90’s era/earlier. Those that grew up with gaming in that area now have wallets.
Are people not seeing the part of the title where it says “The RISE of cozy gaming” and not “cozy games just magically spawned in 20 minutes ago”?
Yes, animal crossing and harvest moon have existed since the 90s. However, Farming Sims and other types of cozy games have absolutely exploded in the last 5-10 years, and there is now such a large amount of content that can actually be defined as a whole genre rather than a grouping of 5 losely similar titles.
I think it’s mostly due to women being marketed to in the videogame sphere, as well as videogames being used more so as a comfortable and familiar escape, rather than as an elaborate power fantasy, which is often a main component when marketing to men.
Women’s video games just a few years ago were often shovelware decorated with popular TV/ movie characters designed for girls. You also wouldn’t really see any games dedicated to adult women as consumers, but you did see that for adult men. The Cozy Genre spawned because of capitalism. It perpetuates itself with escapism and indie development taking over the genre.
Shooting targets for points is a lot easier to program then most things.
As others have already said, it’s on a number of different factors. The gaming industry in general is gradually opening up to different types of consumers, realizing that the “you have big gun” fantasy is not the only one they can cater to. The gradual inclusion of non-men in gaming spaces is no coincidence either, in my opinion.
The impression I have is that New Horizon’s bonkers success during the pandemic made companies aware that cozy/feminine games have a lucrative all-genders market appeal and made more players look for that flavor of gameplay in indie games.
I think that’s probably also why something like Fashion Dreamer got featured in a Nintendo direct and is making much more of an attempt to draw in male players than Style Savvy did… It’s nice to see.
Early computer games were super cozy. When I was a kid we played point and click adventure games that were basically Agatha Christie novels in game form.
Someone never played Harvest Moon
i think they’re more prominent because more gaming companies see that women are a profitable demographic and so there are more cozy games, since the gaming industry is still extremely gendered in how they market and who they market to. it’s just becoming less niche just like gaming in general.
“cozy gaming” has always been a thing. We just have a label for it now.
It started with the pandemic
I think it’s more like all the previous decades of blasting and chopping got too repetitive x)
Cozy gaming has been around and very popular for much longer than the last 4 years.
No
I played Jones in the Fast Lane many times as kid. However the only change I has seen was that game where more forgiving. Going bankrupt or dying was more of concern then in today’s games. On non PCs (that is why i never played it myself) there was also Little Computer People which could be seen as ancestor of The Sims.
I mostly had adventures, RPGs, simulation and strategic games on my MS-DOS PC as kid. However if i had an Amiga or C64 the situation would be different.
After 4 decades of shooting, punching, and emote dancing, I think we’ve earned some downtime.
There are many different genres which took time to rise. Cozy is one of them.
we do love indulging into our most unrealistic fantasies, dont we
The rise of cozy games started since facebook and other social media platforms started to become more popular. Those games like farmville (or however they were called) were pretty popular and there were many of them. So they were back even in 2006 I believe. They were mostly p2w with stamina mechanics and later they started to evolution to PC games. I think Minecraft was the biggest one that was released in 2009 and it became very popular and a lot of other studios saw potential in this genre.
P.S. I mostly talk about farming based games or sandboxes, but a lot of cozy games were out even before that.