Last November, Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone brought Stardew Valley's highly-anticipated 1.6 update to home consoles after months of strenuous development. Despite the fact that the update was originally released on PC in March 2024, making the ports took far longer than most people expected, including ConcernedApe himself. In a post on Twitter, ConcernedApe revealed that porting the 1.6 update to PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch was such a difficult task that he had to stop working on his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, for several weeks. Now that the Stardew Valley update is available on all platforms, though, ConcernedApe has finally resumed development on his upcoming project. That, however, doesn't mean he's moving on from Stardew Valley entirely.
During the Stardew Valley concert that was held last month, ConcernedApe announced that a 1.7 update for Stardew Valley had entered development. Although he stated that he couldn't provide an exact or estimated release date for this upcoming update, ConcernedApe did say with complete certainty that "it's happening" at some point. While it's great that he's still developing new content for Stardew Valley nearly a decade after its debut, ConcernedApe should make sure to temper expectations for this update if it isn't that large in scope, so that fans won't get disappointed by it when it eventually comes out.
Stardew Valley's Getting a New Update Soon, But It May Not Be that Big
There is, quite literally, nothing that is officially known about the contents of Stardew Valley's 1.7 update at the moment. That said, given that the 1.6 update didn't include a lot of major new features compared to previous patches for the game, it's possible that the 1.7 update will be relatively small in scope. If that is the case, then this wouldn't be that surprising. Since ConcernedApe probably wants to release Haunted Chocolatier as soon as possible, he may push any additional development efforts for Stardew Valley into the background for the time being. However, unlike the recent 1.6 update, Stardew Valley's 1.7 update shouldn't impact the development timeline for Haunted Chocolatier that much.
Haunted Chocolatier entered development roughly 5 years ago, but the game is still nowhere close to being finished.
Unlike With Update 1.6, ConcernedApe Won't Be that Involved in Update 1.7's Development
ConcernedApe revealed on the official Haunted Chocolatier website that he would not be fully involved in the development of Stardew Valley's upcoming 1.7 update. Instead, he said that the update would primarily be made by a small team of other developers, which he would serve as a creative director for. As they work on Stardew Valley, ConcernedApe said that he plans to continue developing Haunted Chocolatier all by himself for the foreseeable future.
Even If Update 1.7 Isn't Big, Stardew Valley Will Still Get a Lot More Content in the Future
Even if Stardew Valley's 1.7 update isn't that ambitious, due to ConcernedApe's limited involvement with it, players should still expect many more features to be added to the game in the future. In spite of the fact that he's spent almost his entire career on it, ConcernedApe has repeatedly said that he wants to continue making new content for Stardew Valley, simply because of how important this project is to him. In fact, earlier this year, he stated that he had no intention of ever retiring and that he might even be interested in adding new features to the game 50 years from now.
ConcernedApe's Consistent Support for Stardew Valley May Make Players More Lenient to a Smaller-Scale 1.7 Update
Stardew Valley is arguably one of the most feature-rich indie games ever made, so it's not exactly in need of more updates. Even still, the fact that ConcernedApe and his team of developers are committed to supporting the game for years to come is commendable in its own right. While it's possible that the next major update for Stardew Valley will not be as large as some fans hope it will be, maybe players'll be willing to give the developers a pass in such a scenario, due to the great track record they've built up so far. Only time will tell, though, if this actually ends up being the case.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 90 /100 Critics Rec: 99%
- Released
- February 26, 2016
- ESRB
- E for Everyone (Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Simulated Gambling, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco)
- Developer(s)
- ConcernedApe
- Publisher(s)
- ConcernedApe
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Proprietary
- Genre(s)
- RPG, Simulation
