Eric Barone doesn't want to 'reveal much yet,' but Stardew Valley's 1.7 update is starting to sound like another big one

Eric Barone smiling and talking about Stardew Valley

(Image credit: PC Gamer)

It looks like Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone may be getting up to his old shenanigans again, and by 'old shenanigans' I mean turning a small, just one more thing update into a big, beefy add-on. Barone said shortly after confirming the Stardew Valley 1.7 update is on the way that "it’s hard to just stop improving it when there are still things that can be improved," but in a more recent post he pretty strongly implied that there's a lot more in the pipe than just improvements.

"There will be some more character/social stuff, it's also traditional to add a new farm type," Barone wrote in response to a user who asked for a hint about the update. "Lots more but I don't want to reveal much yet."

there will be some more character/social stuff, it's also traditional to add a new farm type. Lots more but I don't want to reveal much yet — (Image credit: Eric Barone (Twitter))

Keeping his cards close to the vest is Barone's way: We didn't get the full skinny on the 1.6 update until it went live in March 2024, although Barone did have fun winding everyone up with "one patch note per day" teases. You can get away with that sort of thing when you've made what is basically the most popular indie videogame in the history of humanity.

The irony here is that Barone said just a few months ago that he doesn't want "too much hype" for Stardew Valley 1.7, which is a bit like telling the entire world to guard the History Eraser Button: The post confirming the existence of the update has drawn more than 164,000 likes on X since it went up at the end of August, after all.

Of course, gamers eager for Barone's next game, Haunted Chocolatier, may be a little less than hype about the whole thing. After mashing the brakes on that one so he could focus on the Stardew 1.6 update, Barone committed to finishing Haunted Chocolatier before doing any more work on Stardew. Four months later, that'd softened to a compromise position: Yes, the new Stardew update will probably slow down work on Chocolatier, "but not as much as you might think" because Barone is trying to be less directly hands-on with it. Will that work out? We'll see how things are going in December 2026.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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