It is already 8 years since the launch of Stardew Valley on PC. Following the positive reception, the game was ported to other platforms including Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and more. To celebrate the 8th anniversary, the game’s developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone announced update 1.6 which will come on March 19, 2024.
“It’s the 8th anniversary of Stardew Valley,” Barone tweeted on Monday. February 26. “Thank you for all the support over the years! Today I am announcing the PC Release date for the 1.6 update: –March 19th–. Console & Mobile will follow as soon as possible.”
In a follow-up tweet, Barone revealed that the game has now sold over 30 million copies. According to credible reports, 19 million of those sales happened on PCs. Barone who is the game’s lone developer thrilled the world when the game was released in 2016.
“With a new update on the horizon, a worldwide concert tour underway, an official cookbook coming soon, and now over 30 million copies sold, Stardew Valley is thriving more than ever,” Barone wrote. “As always, I’m eternally grateful to the players (you!🫵) for making all of this possible.”
In the latest tweet, Barone made no mention of the content that will be coming to update 1.6. However, the developer had made the reveal around six months ago. Below is a sneak peek of what the developer wants to bring to the game.
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- New major festival
- Two new mini-festivals
- New late-game content with expansions on skill areas
- New items and crafting recipes
- Joja alternatives to end-game quests
- 100+ new lines of dialogue
- Winter outfits for villagers
- New rewards for billboard requests
- 8-player multiplayer on PC
- New farm type
- New secrets & more
What kind of game is Stardew Valley?
Stardew Valley is a role-playing, farm life sim game where players take the role of a character who recently lost their grandfather and had to inherit a dilapidated farm in a place called Stardew Valley. Players can engage in different activities including raising livestock, growing crops, cooking, fishing, and socializing with other residents of the town.
In addition to the fact that Stardew Valley was a solo project that took over four and a half years to create, what many players found amazing and a deviation from the norm was that players can marry and have children in the game or adopt one in the situation of same-sex marriage.
Stardew Valley is ranked as one of the greatest video games of all time. After its release in 2016, the game received multiple nominations including from Golden Joystick Awards where it won in the Breakthrough Award category.
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Stardew Valley has an active modding community of players who have continued to add new features to the game. One of the mods called Stardew Valley Expanded has over 2 million downloads. The vast majority of the mods are only available for play on PC. ConcernedApe has released several updates to the game in the past that have made modding easier.
Stardew Valley was heavily influenced by the series titled Story of Seasons which was previously called Harvest Moon. The game makes use of a special calendar where four 28-day months represent a season.
It was also reported that PC multiplayer support is being expanded from four players to eight. If that becomes a reality, it means you can tag along with more friends to construct your virtual homestead. Hopefully, Stardew Valley’s update 1.6 will be enough to satiate the game’s fan base until the release of ConcernedApe’s next highly anticipated game called Haunted Chocolatier.
