Cozy MMO Palia is threatening players with an increasingly enormous stuffed frog if they keep wishlisting it on Steam

Palia - four frog plushies of increasing size, nearly as tall as a house

(Image credit: Singularity 6)

Cozy life and farming sim MMO Palia launched in open beta last year as a free-to-play game with its own launcher on PC (and also on the Nintendo Switch and Epic Store). After a bit of a wait, it's launching on Steam next month too, and to incentivize players to wishlist it there, Singularity 6 has devised a community campaign with a slightly threatening aura: a frog plushie of yet-to-be-determined size.

Palia will launch on Steam on March 25, Singularity 6 has announced, and players can wishlist it there until then. To show their appreciation to everyone who helps promote the game by adding it to their Steam wishlist, the developer is giving away an in-game decorative plush frog named Frogbert to all players who log in on any platform within 30 days of the Steam launch. The trick is that for every 100,000 players who wishlist, the future frog gets bigger. Lucky there is a maximum size of a 5x size Frogbert earned at 500,000 wishlists.

At time of writing, there are over 200,000 wishlists, so this amphibian is growing fast. And yes, S6 says you can pitch in by wishlisting even if you aren't actually planning to play on Steam. One might even say you should, for the sake of the frog gags.

Palia is a cross-platform MMO with a main story questline that focuses on the usual life and farm sim activities of farming, fishing, crafting, and romancing villagers. But the endgame is definitely dumping gold into expanding your housing lot and crafting or buying increasingly snazzy sets of decor. I've already done a bit of grinding during its first seasonal event to bring home some limited-time plushies for my in-game bedroom. So it's safe to say Singularity 6 is playing to its audience. My question is, where am I going to put this giant frog when my bed is already plushed out?

Palia - a player stands beside a bed and wardrobe with several plushies on top — (Image credit: Singularity 6)

Palia is still in open beta as it adds more explorable areas, quests, decor, and seasonal events for players to experience. The Steam version of the game will support cross-play with other platforms and cross-progression by using your Singularity 6 account.

Although I think it's still got lots of room to grow, I do already consider it one of the best games like Stardew Valley because there just isn't anything else like it right now.

Lauren has been writing for PC Gamer since she went hunting for the cryptid Dark Souls fashion police in 2017. She accepted her role as Associate Editor in 2021, now serving as self-appointed chief cozy games and farmlife sim enjoyer. Her career originally began in game development and she remains fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long fantasy books, longer RPGs, can't stop playing co-op survival crafting games, and has spent a number of hours she refuses to count building houses in The Sims games for over 20 years.