The Cozy Video Game Genre and how it turned into another buzzy word used by companies to sell products
On February 26th, 2016 a massive labor of love video game called Stardew Valley by ConcernedApe popped into the gaming scene. It was a colossal success unlike any I can think of over the last 10-15 years. When you break it down, its a well-designed, light-hearted experience where you can pretty much do what you want but you slowly become involved in the day to day of the character's lives, rebuilding what was lost in the community, building your vision for a farm, making friends, and finding a lifelong partner. I do believe one thing they absolutely got right was the opening scene and cutscenes, you are playing as the grandchild of an old man who passed on the farm to you (someone who was also desperate to escape from the sterile corporate world which was made quite clear in the opening that corporations are the enemy). As you enter into this quiet valley with so many stories to see and mysteries to explore, you truly feel like you have escaped to another world.
The gaming community rejoiced with videos, guides, cosplay, fanart, and mods made just for Stardew. With a supportive developer who embraced their fans after years of work the community flourished. After Stardew Valley, there was a decent demand for these types of games, but these were still very much in the background with indie games and smaller titles. That may have been where the genre stayed in this part of the farming, crafting, easy games like My Time at Portia for a niche section of the overall community.
Then 2020 rolled around and the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe. All of the sudden we were inside, alone, and for many of us unsure of the future.
Nintendo's Animal Crossing New Horizons game coincided with the lockdown. A game that would have been a well-beloved entry with Nintendo fans as it always had been, released on March 20, 2020. A game that is a stress-free fishing, gathering game about building your house and community with lovable neighbors. Oh yeah, the mainstream ATE THAT UP. In fact, Nintendo saw the pandemic was a major reason why the game did so well. The Switch was sold out for weeks in many places due to high demand just for this game. I even saw while researching the stats, Animal Cross New Horizons is the 13th best-selling game in history.
Yet this also means the cozy genre is now mainstream. People are demanding to hell and high water for more and more. So, like any BIG wave of success and love for a genuine thing, the opportunists flock in.
Over the last almost 5 years, I saw small genre I really liked to become cozy youtubers talking about MONTHLY new cozy games coming out and how we should be freaking out over them. Disney came in with Disney's Dreamlight Valley (which feels a little interesting in the title they went for COUGH* Stardew Valley *COUGH). Of course, it was no surprise that they had MICRO-TRANSACTIONS to get a premium as they called it piece of clothing for their characters that you KNOW people want but make sure to fork over $20 please.
Suddenly mainstream games are TRYING to pitch themselves as "cozy". A youtuber names Erowna broke it down. A game called Deadside, a survival third person shooter tried to add cozy into its marketing?
Several Kickstarters also failed that were making huge cozy game promises like PuffPals Island Skies that raised millions. Now they are facing lawsuits. (link here for the whole story, its a mess and so glad I decided not to back it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZjvRwjxacY&t=2s)
Those "cozy youtubers" now on tik-tok and other social media creating ENTIRE rooms in their houses for all their hobbies and gaming. I'm not talking about a computer/business office space I'm talking an entire room for gaming, "self-care", hobbies like knitting and crochet because all that fits snuggly into the whole idea of cozy, giant nap/couch things that cost thousands of dollars, candles, and things you NEED to make a space for your cozy lifestyle. Not to mention sponsorships and how to build your "Cozy dream life".
Thanks to so much media hype and pressure now people feel they need to have all this stuff to have a full experience to bring comfort when all you really need is a blanket and the computer you are already using since a lot of these games don't require high component specs anyway.
It's gotten so bad, there are joke videos about it (see below this was posted this year): https://youtube.com/shorts/0hWvGLeDFBE?si=PWAunn_I54oAUkHR
Going back to Stardew Valley. The game about escaping the world. A world where every tiny thing needs to be marketable, polished, sellable, and able to grow to sell more and more is what the genre turned into by the time 2025 rolled around.
Yet in the background, there are genuine games that DO exist and are not crazy heavy hitters in sales but well thought out ideas like Potionomics, Beacon Pines, Coral Island, Tavern Talk, etc. Those games don't have micro-transactions and pretty cheap. I know this community will never truly die out as smaller games like these exist and many people are growing slowly more anti-overconsumption. It shows with the growing backlash against the overhype and push from all sides to buy, buy, buy. You don't need to have every single cozy game, you don't need a thousand-dollar couch, and you don't even need a console for most of these.
Play the games you want to play and don't buy into the hype that you need to do things to feel part of something.
That's my TED Talk, I am just so tired of how over-consumerism has literally screwed up everything. This is all mainly opinion as someone who has been in gaming for 25+ years.
I'm going to go play Stardew Valley again.
#longrant #videogames #cozy