Ultima Online lead says "Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley and all these other kind of cozy games" are filling a gap in modern MMO design

A former lead developer on Ultima Online and ex-director on Star Wars Galaxies says cozy games have now plugged a gap in the MMO space.

Ralph Koster, whose expansive MMO resume spans senior work on Ultimat Online, Star Wars Galaxies and, now, the upcoming Stars Reach, chimed in on where the genre is at right now: the same place as where it's been since 2004, he says in an interview with GamesRadar+.

"I think they've been in a rut for a long time," Koster explains. "We haven't seen a lot of innovation in the space. There haven't been that many major titles over the last decade or two. The template set by World of Warcraft continues to kind of dominate, and it's narrowed down what used to be a much more diverse genre." Koster acknowledges that some genres, like survival sandbox sims, take advantage of features that aren't seen much in MMOs these days, but it's so-called cozy games that are really an "offshoot of sandbox MMOs."

Koster explains that non-violent features aren't as prominent in the genre as they used to be, specifically pointing to things like player housing, player-driven economies, business management, tools for creativity, and social activities. These all happen to be things that "we've seen people want to do in Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley and all these other kind of cozy games which are also an offshoot of sandbox MMOs, so all of those kinds of things are mostly absent these days from theme park MMOs."

Now serving as CEO of developer Playable Worlds, Koster says his new game Stars Reach is aiming to modernize those older-school idea and bring them back, "not the way that they were 20 years ago."

Former Ultima Online lead wants his new MMO to satisfy the "huge, huge appetite" for "a more immersive parallel world" like the ones in Sword Art Online and Animal Crossing