Stardew Valley's newest update is looking bigger than we initially thought

Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone has dropped a little teaser of what we can expect with Stardew Valley's 1.6 update, and it seems like he's been unable to help himself, with more on offer than originally promised.

Initially we weren't even sure if a 1.6 update would happen at all, with Barone saying he was "not willing to commit" to one. That changed in November 2022 when he dropped that he was working on it, but quelled hype by cementing that it would be a modding-focused update, with far less on offer than the juggernaut 1.5 update. He further iterated its smaller size in April this year, but added that there would be new game content.

Now we have a very small insight into what some of that new content will be. Barone tweeted out a few bullet points of what to expect, including a new festival, new items—one of which is likely an iridium scythe—additional dialogue, "secrets," and finished it off with a mysterious "???" bullet point. He's right that it's certainly less than the expansion-sized updates of Stardew past, but it's still a lot more than what I was expecting when he announced he was working on 1.6 last year. 

New dialogue options are always appreciated, especially when I can quote most of Pelican Town's residents from memory at this point. I've never been huge into Stardew's festivals, but I'm looking forward to seeing what Barone has to offer regardless. Of course, I'm also deeply curious about what secrets and question-mark-worthy content is waiting for me, too. 

The 1.6 update is still planned to be heavily focused on improving the modding experience, but it's nice to have some extra goodies to look forward to. No word on when the update will be released yet, but I'd take a guess that we can expect it before the year is out, especially considering Barone has been taking a break from developing Haunted Chocolatier to work on this.