Highlights

  • Stardew Valley developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone is not ruling out the possibility of future updates for the hit farming sim.
  • Barone says he could "keep working on the game forever."
  • Even so, no more content drops are currently planned following the multi-platform release of Stardew Valley update 1.6.

Stardew Valley may receive more updates in the future, the game's sole developer said. This revelation was shared as part of a wider interview reflecting on the current state of Stardew Valley.

The hit farming sim developed by Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has received dozens of patches both big and small since its 2016 release. Its latest major revision arrived in mid-March 2024 in the form of Stardew Valley update 1.6, which introduced new items, events, animals, and even gameplay mechanics, among many other novelties.

stardew valley destroyed building
Related
1 Stardew Valley Area is Still Neglected After Update 1.6

One particular area in ConcernedApe's Stardew Valley remains neglected, even after the big 1.6 update that was released for the game.

Stardew Valley Developer Has No Shortage of New Update Ideas

That release may not be the end of Stardew Valley content drops, with Barone saying as much in a recent interview with PC Gamer. That's largely because the developer himself is still playing the farming sim on a regular basis, which often leads to him coming up with new ideas for what he could add to it. This process helped shape update 1.6 and essentially every major patch that preceded it, and could very well lead to even more Stardew Valley content and changes down the road. "I could keep working on the game forever, every aspect of the game could be enriched," Barone explained.

Future Stardew Valley Updates Still Aren't Guaranteed to Happen

But while additional Stardew Valley content drops are not out of the question, "at some point, you have to move on," Barone said, noting how he had already spent 12 years working on the game as of 2024. Yet the time to move on isn't here just yet, with Barone saying he's currently focused on polishing the latest release. Those efforts have so far yielded eight minor patches that were rolled out since the 1.6 update, the latest of which bumped the game's version number up to 1.6.8. At the same time, Barone is also presently working on Stardew Valley 1.6 update for consoles and mobile devices. That particular release is promised to be coming "soon," presumably after the process of patching the PC version of the hit farming sim is complete.

I could keep working on the game forever, every aspect of the game could be enriched.

ConcernedApe's Near-Term Plans Don't Include Stardew Valley 1.7

And while Barone hence isn't ruling out the possibility of more content down the road, he has confirmed that no such updates are on the agenda at this point. The current plan is for him to take a break, and then resume his work on Haunted Chocolatier once the 1.6 version of Stardew Valley is fully polished and available across all of the game's target platforms.

October 21 will mark the third anniversary of the Haunted Chocolatier announcement. It is currently unclear at what stage of development Barone's next game is. The initial version of Stardew Valley took around four and a half years of work, but that may not be indicative of Haunted Chocolatier's development timeline. After all, Stardew Valley had the benefit of not having its development sporadically interrupted by Stardew Valley.