Stardew Valley's 1.5 update released late last year and was the game's biggest yet. Mainly, it added the massive location of Ginger Island with its several quests and secrets. Ginger Island also contained a brand new dungeon, the Volcano Dungeon, and a remote farm on its western shore. But perhaps Ginger Island also overshadowed other aspects of Stardew Valley's 1.5 updates, such as the Beach Farm layout.
As players are already finishing 1.5's massive amount of content, and have tried expanding on the game's experience in the way of mods like Stardew Valley Expanded, many have been wondering if the game will ever get a 1.6 update. If it ever comes, it would be a long way out. Some signs point to the update never happening, but that doesn't mean it never will.
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As many know, Stardew Valley was originally developed as a copycat of the old Harvest Moon games by developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone and his girlfriend. One of their biggest complaints with the series was that the game would end after a couple of short years, and the only way to keep playing was to start from scratch. But with Stardew Valley, the fun never has to end as some players have even made it to their 20th year in Pelican Town.
So 1.5 being the "end" of Stardew Valley wouldn't support this idea, but of course, the game can only be supported for a finite amount of time. Still, there are other games that have been around a lot longer and launch new content to this day, such as Minecraft. Based on what mods have come up with, like adding brand-new locations, there are still many ways that Stardew Valley could be expanded in the future. But having created nearly the entire game by himself, the question is whether or not Barone wants more updates.
Back in September, in an interview with Game Informer, Barone said that he wasn't "willing to commit" to a Stardew Valley 1.6 update. While this doesn't rule out the possibility of a 1.6 update at some point in the future, it does mean that Barone doesn't have anything lined up for it currently. It's also worth pointing out what makes Stardew Valley feel like it's come to a definitive end in terms of updates.
The 1.5 update to Stardew Valley also added the Perfection system in addition to Ginger Island and the Beach Farm. This awards the player for completing the game at 100% by finishing certain tasks like catching every Legendary Fish. It would be strange to add another update, then add more requirements to the Perfection system as it wouldn't translate well for those who have already reached the achievement prior and reaped the rewards. Additionally, Barone himself, along with some friends, reached Perfection in their own run of Stardew Valley, and they took a screenshot together with the end-game content that's revealed when Perfection is reached. Without spoiling anything, this moment feels like a cherry on top, a conclusive ending to the game.
Stardew Valley has been quite a lot of work for Barone. The young developer created the game completely on his own, and it's only been in more recent years that he's had to hire outside help, such as for the Multiplayer Update and porting 1.5 to mobile devices, which is still in the works. It would be quite a lot of work on his part to put together a 1.6 update for Stardew Valley. While it may happen at some point, it's possible that 1.5 is the final update to Stardew Valley.
Stardew Valley is out now for Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.