There was a brief moment back in 2021 when it seemed like Stardew Valley creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone might finally be done with his mega-popular farm-life sim – until, that is, update 1.6 was suddenly announced and rapidly took on a life of its own. And now Barone has admitted it’s unlikely he’ll ever ‘definitively close the book’ on its development, saying (probably not entirely seriously) he might still be adding things “50 years from now”.
Stardew Valley was an immediate hit when it released back in 2016, selling over 400K copies in just two weeks. Nearly nine years later, that number has reached the 41m mark, and Barone, somewhat remarkably, has continued to expand the game – most recently in last year’s 1.6 update, which was originally supposed to be relatively modest in scope when it was announced in 2022, but grew increasingly ambitious as time went on.
That’s despite Barone having seemingly drawn a line under Stardew Valley’s development a year earlier, when he confirmed he’d be focusing his attention on a new game – later revealed to be Haunted Chocolatier. But while Barone has now resumed development of his second title following a pause for Stardew Valley’s 1.6 update, he’s admitted he doesn’t think he’ll ever necessarily be done with his farming game.
Speaking to NPR, Barone revealed that even though he’s now been working on Stardew Valley for more than 12 years, “I don’t want to definitively say that the book is ever closed, because I think I will always have a desire to come back and maybe add a thing or two. You know, maybe even 50 years from now, I might add something.”