In a post-Stardew Valley world, the OG farm sim tries to step up its game: "We've heard our fans loud and clear"

In order to step up its game in a post-Stardew Valley world, the developer of the original farming sim has promised two new games in the near future.

As spotted by PC Gamer, Marvelous - the developer of the upcoming Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life - has revealed that it is developing two brand-new Story of Seasons games, one of which is set to be a multiplayer title.

Announced during the Marvelous Game Showcase 2023, Story of Seasons manager Nakano Hikaru introduced a brand-new game in the long-running farm sim. We don't have a name or release date for this title yet, but we did get to see a teaser trailer for it and it featured all the adorable chonky animals we've come to expect from the series.

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Following this reveal, Hikaru - alongside Marvelous president Sato Suminobu - also introduced "a Story of Seasons that you can play with everyone" aka its upcoming multiplayer project. What's interesting about this reveal is that Hikaru said: "We've heard our fans loud and clear, and they want to play Story of Seasons together with their friends."

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The series manager continues: "The concept of Story of Seasons together is a bold one, and a direction we haven't taken with the series until now." For both projects, the developer made it clear that the series plans to modernize in both visuals and gameplay: "We're preserving all the cherished elements of the series while creating an entertaining farming experience that will reach more players than ever before," Hikaru says.

It's clear that a lot has changed since Story of Seasons aka Harvest Moon first launched back in 1996. For one, it's no longer the most popular farming sim out there thanks to the launch of Stardew Valley - which was greatly inspired by Harvest Moon - back in 2016.

There's now countless farming sims being developed by studios all over the world, everything from the My Time at Portia series to indie projects like Coral Island. It seems Marvelous is stepping up its beloved series in an effort to keep up with other big hitters in the genre.

Need something to play while we wait for the next Story of Seasons? Take a look at our games like Stardew Valley or best farming games lists.

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After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.