Stardew Valley developer Eric Barone, aka ConcernedApe, has finally announced the hotly anticipated release date for update 1.6 on console and mobile.
The developer behind the 30 million-selling farm life simulation game said in a tweet that 1.6 hits console and mobile on November 4, 2024. That’s for all console and mobile versions of the game, including the Nintendo Switch version, and includes the 1.6.9 update.
In a follow-up tweet, ConcernedApe said that following the release of 1.6, console and mobile players can still experience almost everything new with their existing save, “but if you have any interest in starting a new farm it would be ideal to start fresh.”
“Some of the new things, for example, are different in year one than in year two plus,” ConcernedApe continued. “Besides, it's fun to start a new farm right?”
Last month, ConcernedApe said the console and mobile ports of 1.6 were proving troublesome — so much so that he hadn’t worked on his follow-up game “in a long time.”
The free 1.6 update, which sparked a fresh 10/10 Stardew Valley review from IGN, launched on PC in March, which means console and mobile players will have waited eight months for it to launch on their platforms. ConcernedApe initially expected the ports would be released a month later.
In a tweet published last month, a clearly frustrated ConcernedApe apologized to disgruntled fans, and promised not to return to work on his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, until Stardew 1.6 was finalized. Haunted Chocolatier, revealed in 2021, doesn’t have a release window.
Tweeting over the weekend, ConcernedApe explained: “I've always released on PC first, because it's sort of a ‘beta test’ to make sure there are no critical (e.g. save-destroying) bugs, which are a much bigger deal on consoles because they can't be patched out as quickly. However, I never intended for the delay to be this long.”
Also last month, ConcernedApe explained why he really wants Pam in a potential Stardew Valley crossover with Fortnite.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
