General

Natsume announces their own Harvest Moon

[url=http://www.siliconera.com/2014/06/03/harvest-moon-lost-valley-development/]Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley will be released later this year, and has been in development by Natsume since early 2013.[/url] Previous Harvest Moon games (called Bokujo Monogatari games in Japan) have all been developed in Japan by Marvelous AQL, and Natsume has been localizing all of them for over a decade. This marks the first HM game Natsume made from scratch.

A few days ago, XSEED (a subsidiary of Marvelous for a few years now) announced that they'll be bringing over Marvelous' lastest Bokujo Monogatari game for the 3DS, which will be called Story of Seasons in North America. The "Harvest Moon" brand was invented by Natsume, so XSEED isn't allowed to use the name due to legal reasons, hence why Marvelous' latest entry is being called Story of Seasons here.

So basically, the new HM game for the 3DS is being done by XSEED and will be renamed Story of Seasons.
Natsume's new HM was not from the creators of past HM games; they made it themselves, and they can call it HM because they own the rights to the brand.

Pretty cool, right?