Stardew Valley creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has revealed the next major update is coming to the game this year.
Stardew Valley received the 1.5 update in 2020 before Barone shifted his focus to work on Haunted Chocolatier. In November 2022, he confirmed a smaller 1.6 update was in the works and would mostly focus on mod support but that plan has clearly changed over the past 14 months.
Taking to social media earlier today (January 29), Barone wrote: “1.6 ended up being a little larger in scope than originally planned.”
“I’m done adding major new content to it now though, and it’s in a bug-fixing and polishing phase until it’s ready for release,” he continued. ”Thanks for your patience. It’ll be fun to see everyone play it!”
Elsewhere, he confirmed that the update would probably be released for PC first but mobile and console shouldn’t be far behind. “I really really don’t want a big delay between [them]. That was a nightmare in the past.” He also said the update will be released this year.
Barone has previously teased the introduction of a trio of in-game festivals, more than 100 lines of new dialogue, new items, outfits and recipes as well as the ability for cats to wear hats alongside more “secrets”.
1.6 content sneak peek. no release date yet pic.twitter.com/vyhbFRkZ00
— ConcernedApe (@ConcernedApe) September 27, 2023
Later this year, an orchestral show based around the music of Stardew Valley will tour the world.
“I actually think it’s an underappreciated soundtrack actually, in terms of video games,” Barone told NME. “I always say to myself, ‘the fact Stardew Valley became so popular means people will finally listen to my music!’”
“The best thing is when I’m just making music, I’m not even thinking about what it’s for, and it gives me ideas for the game,” he added. “It will make me think of a particular scenario or environment, and then I really envision it through the music and put that into the game. That’s my favourite way to develop, actually.”
In other news, Rocksteady Studios has been forced to take Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League offline, less than an hour after it was launched in early access.