Harvest Moon maker Yasuhiro Wada: Thanks for the success, FarmVille

Wait, shouldn't that be the other way around? Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada recently held a tell-all interview with IGN in which he explained his inspirations for the storied farming simulator franchise that started way back in 1996 on Super Nintendo. Of course, the two couldn't talk for long without mentioning the elephant in the room, Zynga's proverbial cash cow: FarmVille.

"I believe it's helped by increasing the market," Wada told IGN of FarmVille. "In Japan, the latest Harvest Moon game released for the 3DS, and it's a huge success over there. It's because in Japan there's Farmville, but there are also a lot of other farming social games on their version of Facebook, Mixi. I believe the people that have played those games were more willing to go out and give Harvest Moon a shot this time around."

Harvest Moon was created when there was essentially little to no point of reference, while FarmVille ultimately has Wada to thank for its core play concepts. But now, it kind of makes sense for games like FarmVille to act as a gateway of sorts for 3DS owners to the most recent Harvest Moon release. And now that this is out in the open, who smells a collaboration?

Does Harvest Moon really have FarmVille to thank for its continued success? Have you played both Harvest Moon and FarmVille? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.