If there’s one thing cozy games love to do, it’s shifting a release date by a couple days or even a month, only a week before launch. I’ve seen more than one try to pull that over on me in March so far. They probably don’t love it, really, but they sure do it a lot and it makes keeping track of each month’s cozy game releases a real juggling act.
To keep you from feeling like a cozy circus clown dropping farm sims on the ground all month, I’ve gotten PC Gamer’s cozy gaming collective together again to track down the most up to date releases—though I make no promises about dates that change after the month begins—and make a pitch for the cozy games we’re personally looking forward to playing the most.
March cozy game forecast: 🌧️💿 Demo downpour
This month begins with the Steam Next Fest, the big event where tons of upcoming games offer free demos ahead of launch. At time of writing, almost every cozy game we want to play in March has a demo available. Next Fest does end right at the beginning of the month on March 2, though. In past Next Fests, some games pull down their demos after the event, but others may leave theirs live until launch day. I’ve marked which games have a demo right now in the release calendar below, but you may find things change over the course of the month!
March cozy games calendar
Our cozy game picks for March
The Legend of Khiimori
Lauren Morton
I’m not a horse girl in real life, but I’m friends with a few and have great affection for the surprising Venn diagram overlap of horse-loving gamers. Horse enjoyers have been burned before by wonky animations and misunderstood mounts but I want so badly for The Legend of Khiimori to be the one that really gets it right. Open world horse taming and breeding as a courier in 13th century Mongolia sure feels like it could supplant the place Red Dead Redemption 2 holds in the horse community’s heart. Trusted horse game critic and developer Alice Ruppert was consulting on this one, which gives me some extra hope too.
Cupiclaw
Jess Kinghorn
There’s a lot to say about Yakuza Kiwami 3 as a remake—but I’m still hitting the remaster’s UFO catchers hard. Frustrating? Sure, but all of that virtual practice earned me a Miku Hatsune figurine in real life, so I can’t rest on my laurels now. As such, I can’t wait to test my mettle in the upcoming Cupiclaw. While the crane machines here are simplified down to two colourful pixel art dimensions, the action is no less frantic as you attempt to scoop up enough high-earning prizes to replace a lost engagement ring. I can’t wait to lose many hours to cursing this claw.
The Abbess Garden
Andrea Shearon
The Abbess Garden is out at the start of the month, finally giving me a way to live out my lifelong dream of becoming a gardener in 1643 France. Its cute, almost storybook-like presentation found its way into my wishlist immediately, and I dig the more laid-back, tailored approach to the traditional farming sim mechanics. It’s not driven by mass production, and there are no strict grids. Instead, you’ll focus on cleaning up years of overgrowth in a forbidden abbey that “behaves like a real ecosystem.” It’s more meticulous and focused—do a little weeding, plant a few seeds, and carefully tweak the conditions for life. It’s the type of cozy that screams “Steam Deck” at me.
Bubblegum Galaxy
Mollie Taylor
It’s been almost three years since I tried Bubblegum Galaxy’s demo (pause to shudder at the terrifying passage of time), and I’ve thought about it at least once a week ever since. It’s Dorfromantik’s pastel planet sibling, where you rebuild the galaxy tile by tile as an adorable anthropomorphic cat with a silly little house-shaped hat.
It’s perhaps the cosiest and warmest vibes I’ve ever gotten from a game that is set in a corporate workspace—though the whole zany cast and it being located in outer space certainly helps that. It checks all of my cosy game boxes: Relaxing, cute, and with just enough challenge that I won’t fall asleep while playing.
Collector’s Cove
Kara Phillips
I’ve had my eye on Collector’s Cove for a while now, mostly because of the big aquatic looking dinosaur you start your new farming life on. But, even outside of my new prehistoric pal, I’m particularly excited to discover different islands rather than being tethered to a single town as you typically would in a farming simulator. It’s a perfect blend of farming and exploration, which is bound to keep me entertained for endless hours, and I can’t lie—the fact there are no enemies is an instant win in my books. I can’t defend myself when I’m trying to relax.
