Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has announced that yet more content is coming to farming life sim Stardew Valley. Announced during the recent Stardew Valley Symphony of Seasons concert, he confirmed update 1.7 to the world on social media.
It is worth noting that Barone hasn’t yet confirmed what kind of content we can expect from the update or a release date. “Okay, I revealed this at the concert last night and now the cat’s out of the bag, so I will confirm for everyone: There will be a Stardew Valley 1.7 update,” wrote Barone on social media platform X. “No release date, no estimate. But it’s happening”
The announcement for this update basically came out of nowhere since Barone had spoken about also working on Haunted Chocolatier and returning to it after Stardew Valley’s 1.6 update. However, it falls in line with his desire to continue supporting Stardew Valley for several years. Back in January, Barone went as far as to say that he would continue working on updates for the game for 50 more years.
“I do take in a lot of what the fans are saying,” said Barone in an interview, referring to getting fan feedback and new ideas. “I pay attention to what their thoughts are, what their criticisms are. And the players are very important to me. I mean, I will never forget that it’s because of the players that I’m in this position, that the game was able to be popular, that my dreams as a game developer have come true.”
He also spoke about the idea of a game potentially having “too much content”, and how this can start feeling overwhelming for him when it comes to working on things like bug fixes. Despite this, however, he still wants Stardew Valley to be “the best game it can be”.
“I think a game can have too much content,” continued Barone. “And I ultimately want Stardew Valley to be the best game it can be. So if I feel like it’s starting to become kind of overwhelming with content to the point where it’s detrimental to the game’s entertainment factor, I would stop at that point. Another thing is, I do want to make more than one game in my life. Including the development time, I’ve been working on Stardew Valley for over 12 years now.”
Ever since its release back in 2016, Stardew Valley has been incredibly successful for Barone. Back in January, he confirmed that it has sold more than 41 million copies. Of the sales, PC was leading the pack by accounting for 26 million copies on its own, followed by the Nintendo Switch with 7.9 million copies.
Stardew Valley is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Android and iOS.