ConcernedApe Just Can't Quit Stardew Valley, Announces Yet Another Surprise Update
The one-man development powerhouse behind the world's favorite farming sim proves once again that his "final" update is never actually the final update.
Just when you thought it was finally over, he pulls you back in. Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone, the solitary creator of the behemoth farming sim Stardew Valley, has just announced that another update is coming to the nearly decade-old game. This bombshell was dropped not in a press release or a tweet, but live on stage at the Stardew Valley Symphony of Seasons concert in Seattle, where Barone himself addressed a crowd of adoring fans with what he called a "secret".
The announcement comes as a genuine shock, mostly because Barone had explicitly told everyone just a few months ago that he was done with Stardew for the foreseeable future so he could finally focus on his long-awaited next game, Haunted Chocolatier. It seems the allure of Pelican Town is just too strong to resist.
"Just When I Thought I Was Out..."
In a moment captured on TikTok, Barone took the stage and laid out his thought process with a charming frankness. "After that [last 1.6] update, I was thinking, 'I don't know if I’m going to make another update'," he admitted to the cheering crowd. "But I wanted to share something with you tonight, it's kind of a secret… there's going to be another update".
The reversal is what makes this news so notable. Back in April, Barone was clear that continuing to work on Stardew Valley "pulls [him] away from devoting all [his] time to Haunted Chocolatier". It seems that pull was too strong to ignore. We have absolutely no idea what this new update will contain or when it might arrive, but for the game's millions of players, the simple confirmation is more than enough.
The Haunted Chocolatier Question
Of course, this good news for Stardew fans is likely a moment of quiet despair for those eagerly awaiting Barone's next project. Haunted Chocolatier is beginning to feel less like an upcoming game and more like a mythical creature, occasionally sighted in the wild but never captured. How this new, seemingly unplanned detour back to the farm will affect its development schedule is anyone's guess, but it's probably safe to assume it's not speeding things up.
The Gift That Keeps on Giving
It’s hard to be mad, though, when you consider the sheer generosity of Stardew Valley's post-launch support. The last "final" update, the massive 1.6 patch, added a staggering amount of new content, including home renovations, new NPC dialogue, and adorable turtle pets. This is all for a game that first launched almost a decade ago and has since sold over 41 million copies across all platforms. It's a staggering success for a title that is, at its core, a cozy form of digital overtime that we inexplicably pay to perform, proving that sometimes the best escape is just a second job with better scenery.
For now, fans of Haunted Chocolatier will have to continue their patient vigil. But for the millions of us still tending to our crops in Pelican Town, the news is a welcome surprise. The farm is eternal, the work is never truly done, and Eric Barone is seemingly incapable of abandoning it. And honestly, we wouldn't have it any other way.