Stardew Valley 1.6 update will be bigger than expected, and ConcernedApe says it will be released in 2024

There have always been communities of loyal players who have continued to enjoy the same game over the years. Either because it is a game that is constantly evolving, expanding or focused on the multiplayer model. We see this a lot in MMOs, in certain shooters and even in sandbox games like Minecraft. But there are also games that are home. And when you thought it couldn't get any bigger, they surprise you. That's the case with Stardew Valley.

Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone's lifesim is always at the top of the best-selling games on most platforms, even though it was released in 2016. Now, as its creator takes a break from developing his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, he's decided to step up to the development team to work on Stardew Valley 1.6 update.

Barone has been giving us some glimpses of what's to come in 1.6, but it seems his plans have been growing as the months have gone by. According to his latest Twitter post, the update "has ended up reaching a slightly larger scale than originally planned. However, I've finished adding some important new content and it's in a bug fixing and polishing phase until it's ready for release. Thanks for your patience - it'll be fun to watch everyone play it!"

The developer, as usual, is also responding personally to fans in the same thread, where he states emphatically that the update will be released in 2024, that it will be free, and that he recommends everyone to start a new save file in order to experience all the changes and improvements in context.