That's because of the name. Do you know why the games are now called Story of Seasons outside of Japan?

Ah, I was unaware. What's the story behind it?

The games used to be published in the west by Natsume. They hold the rights to the Harvest Moon name. In Japan they still have the same name.

In 2013 Marvelous decided to publish the games themselves in NA through XSEED and had to change the name because of the licensing. Natsume is now making it's own Harvest Moon games that are basically always inferior to the Marvelous developed games.

There's a shocking amount of people I've seen in the Amazon reviews that have zero clue of this and continue buying Harvest Moon games and hate them and think the whole franchise went to shit (Harvest Moon One World for example) while the actual Bokujo-Monogatari franchise is just releasing under a different name in the west. Thankfully the Story of Seasons games are the ones that actually sell a lot.

Yep.  That is also why the new remake for A Wonderful Life is now called Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life instead of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.

What is interesting to me is the old Harvest Moon games were available in the NA eshops for both the Wii U and 3DS.  I can literally go buy Harvest Moon 64 right now on the Wii U.  I wonder what is the hold up here for getting it on the Switch in NA?

On the off chance this is real, a lot of people would rather own something than borrow it, for reasons so obvious it would feel ridiculous to explain it. There are also people who would rather not lend their games out. I still haven't gotten back my copy of Resident Evil 4 on Gamecube, but I also have a friend's copy of Xenosaga, so I guess the universe is in balance.

It is likely that a significant number of the five million people or so who bought 3D World would be interested in Bowser's Fury, and would prefer to own it. It would have cost Nintendo next to nothing to release Bowser's Fury as a standalone digital title, except for the money they would forego from people who would otherwise repurchase 3D WOrld to play it. It is a purely anti-consumer move that's kind of impossible to defend on any ground besides Nintendo wants to make that skrilla and if you want to own Bowser's Fury you gotta give Wario his coins. If they had released a standalone version, anyone who would rather borrow it can still do so, and the mooch market would be unperturbed. More options is never a bad thing.

When someone says "you are basically saying" you can be assured that what follows will bear no resemblance to what you actually said. No, I did not say I'm against lending, and I don't care at all whether someone wants to lend out their games. I don't know why that needed to be said.

You have not explained anything, you're just being pedantic about the word "own". Owning a digital license to a game comes with certain benefits that borrowing does not have. I think this option should have been available for Bowser's Fury so that people who already owned 3D world could have those benefits without paying for 3D World again. Ideally, I would like it to be available physically as well, but physical production comes with costs, and it might not make sense for the relatively small market of 3D World owners who did not want to double dip, so I don't really blame Nintendo for not making a physical version. On the other hand, releasing a digital version of Bowser's Fury would have cost next to nothing, so there was no reason not to, except to encourage people to double dip.

If Nintendo had released a digital version, any who didn't want to buy that would be in exactly the same position they would have been in otherwise. So, it is not a bad thing for any consumer. Anyone who is upset that other people could choose to buy a game in a format they don't approve of is irrational and stupid. I suppose upsetting irrational stupid people could be considered a bad thing, but that's not what I meant. I meant an actual monetary detriment to a consumer or potential consumer.

Hahahaha. This convo is so dumb.

Played and completed the demo for Harvestella. Was pretty fun! The farming mechanics definitely felt influenced by Stardew Valley, and the combat portions/exploration reminded me a bit of Crystal Chronicles. Definitely interested in getting it now.

As for the rest of the Direct, I enjoyed it. It didn't have anything too ground-shaking, and the Pikmin 4 and TotK trailers were a bit on the dull side, but overall it gave people some nice stuff to look forward too. Definitely excited for GoldenEye and the new Theatrhythm as well. One thing I was surprised wasn't shown though was a new platform for Switch Online. Was pretty confident Game Boy/Color games would be shown, but I guess not.

You're not wrong.

Says the main perpetrator.