Microsoft has announced the Xbox Game Pass February 2026 Wave 1 lineup, which includes big hitters such as High on Life 2, Madden NFL 26, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
As detailed in a post on Xbox Wire, available today, February 3, are Final Fantasy II (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) and Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC), both across Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, and PC Game Pass.
February 5 sees Madden NFL 26 (Cloud, Console, and PC) join Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, and — something totally different — Paw Patrol Rescue Wheels: Championship (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC) on Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, and PC Game Pass.
Moving on to February 10 and Relooted (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) hits Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. February 12 is a solid day for Game Pass with BlazBlue Entropy Effect X (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC), Roadside Research (Game Preview) (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC), and Starsand Island (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) all hitting Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
A day later, on February 13, we have two big hitters: High on Life 2 (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC), which launches day one on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, and open-world RPG Kingdom Come Deliverance (Cloud, Console, and PC) on Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, and PC Game Pass.
Rounding out the list, on February 17 we have Ubisoft’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, and PC) on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, and Obsidian’s fantasy RPG Avowed (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) hitting Game Pass Premium, which should open its doors to more players.
Xbox Game Pass February 2026 Wave 1 lineup:
Madden NFL 26 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – February 5 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Relooted (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – February 10 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
BlazBlue Entropy Effect X (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – February 12 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Roadside Research (Game Preview) (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – February 12 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Starsand Island (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – February 12 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
High on Life 2 (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – February 13 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Kingdom Come Deliverance (Cloud, Console, and PC) – February 13 Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, PC Game Pass
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, and PC) – February 17 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Avowed (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – February 17 Now with Game Pass Premium
Only one game leaves Game Pass this month: Madden NFL 24 (Cloud, Console, and PC), on February 15, which makes sense since last year’s game is replacing it.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
There have been many storylines to follow in the Switch 2’s first year, but there’s one specific thread that's bugged me since Nintendo unveiled its plans last April – and it’s only grown more bothersome over the last several months: the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. This series of enhanced Switch 1 ports have been wildly inconsistent across their price points, amount of new content, and quality of enhancements, and I’m frankly tired of Nintendo filling out its release calendar with slightly updated versions of games millions of Switch owners already played several years ago. These feelings were solidified when I attended a preview event to play Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park (yes, that’s the full title, and it’s one of the most hilariously unwieldy names in Nintendo history), which is already the eighth first-party Nintendo Switch 2 Edition since the console launched last June.
That’s not to say what I played was bad, it just wasn’t particularly inspiring, and complete indifference has been an unfortunate theme across these releases. I sat down with three other journalists to try out a handful of cooperative and competitive minigames found in Bellabel Park, Wonder’s new hub area that contains more than a dozen multiplayer challenges. After selecting our characters from the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition’s slightly expanded roster that now includes Rosalina, we dove into our first co-op level. This one had two of us use the Joy-Con 2’s mouse controls to place platforms for the other two characters to leap across. It felt like something you’d have seen the GamePad used for back in the Wii U era, and it did lead to some clever puzzles for the mouse users where we had to guide a rolling ball along to break a barrier that was blocking the way for our partners.
The other co-op mission we tried was essentially hot potato with a Bob-omb, where the four of us had to work our way through a level while also passing an explosive back and forth. A timer would tick down whenever the incorrect player was holding the Bob-omb, leading to a frantic rush to both get to the end as fast as possible while making sure the right person was in control. On the competitive side, one game had us battling to feed our personal baby Yoshi the most fruit, while the other ones we tried were pretty standard races that had us bouncing to the goal or flying on a flower propeller. Before the match begins, each player picks from a small selection of Wonder’s badges to try to get a leg up, which is a smart way to remix the lineup of special abilities that felt somewhat underutilized in the main adventure.
There's fun to be found, but Mario Wonder's new content is awkwardly straddling the line between 2D Mario and Mario Party.
Each game certainly had some fun to offer, but afterwards I couldn’t help but feel like this concept is awkwardly straddling the line: if I wanted multiplayer mayhem with Mario characters, there are so many other, better options like Mario Kart, Party, or 3D World, just to name a few. And, if I wanted 2D Mario, I’d much rather play the traditional Super Mario Bros. Wonder campaign, which I adore. To be completely fair, there is more traditional content on the way in Wonder’s Nintendo Switch 2 Edition in the form of Wonder Effect boss fights against the returning Koopalings and extra challenges that take place in pre-existing levels, but I didn’t get to try any of that at this preview event. Even so, none of this Edition’s additions currently feel as exciting as a couple of extra brand-new worlds likely would have.
The Problems with Nintendo Switch 2 Editions
And nothing here comes close to justifying the $80 price tag attached to Mario Wonder’s Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. Yes, there’s a $20 upgrade pack for folks who already own Wonder, but for new buyers, a visually upgraded version of a 2023 Switch 1 game with a few new Bellabells and whistles costs more than 2025’s Switch 2-exclusive Donkey Kong Bananza, which just feels completely out of whack.
Pricing has been a big problem across the lineup of Nintendo Switch 2 Editions. On paper, I understand the math Nintendo is doing. First-party Switch games notoriously almost never see permanent price drops, so the Nintendo equation is a $60 game plus a $20 content expansion equals an $80 product. But it’s hard not to look at that and just think that it feels kind of greedy. A new generation is the perfect time to discount the prices of your last-gen games, and if Nintendo knocked the Switch 1 version of Wonder down to $40 and priced the Switch 2 version at $60, I don’t think anyone would bat an eye. And Nintendo’s third-party partners aren’t following suit with this steep pricing model: Square Enix recently released Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade on Switch 2 for just $40 – $20 cheaper than it was at launch six years ago, and with all of its DLC and post-launch updates included. That’s a much more enticing offer for prospective buyers.
It’d be easier to accept the price points if the additional content was reliably great, but that hasn’t been the case. Last July’s Super Mario Party Jamboree - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV (another mouthful, and another $80 game/$20 upgrade) launched in what I would consider an unacceptable state for an enhanced rerelease. Firstly, its new content was fairly throwaway, and mostly felt like a way to try and sell the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera accessory for its gimmicky minigames. But the bigger issue is that the enhanced resolution – a huge selling point of these upgrades – only applied to half of the game, while one half was quite literally a drag-and-drop port of the Switch 1 version, 1080p resolution and all. Nintendo eventually released an update that ironed out some of that messy edition’s issues, but it’s still a more misleading, clunkier, and overall worse product than the Switch 1 version that dropped a year earlier for $20 less.
Performance and graphical updates for Switch 1 games on Switch 2 have been a very positive part of this generation so far. Games like Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Echoes of Wisdom, Super Mario Odyssey, and Pokémon Scarlet & Violet all look and run way better now on Switch 2, and those patches were released for free! Which is why it’s all the more frustrating when Nintendo paywalls performance patches for the arbitrary games they happen to make more content for.
It's frustrating when Nintendo paywalls performance patches for the arbitrary games they happen to make more content for.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land had some noticeable framerate issues on Switch 1, and on Switch 2 it now runs at a flawless 60 fps… but only if you buy the Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World game ($80) or upgrade pack ($20). Sorry, Kirby fans, Forgotten Land was chosen to get a batch of new levels, which means you have to pay 20 bucks to get the improved performance that’s free across most of Nintendo’s other releases. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition didn’t get any new content outside of extra lore and quality of life updates only accessible through a Nintendo smartphone app, but those cost $10 more rather than being free upgrades. Those two are also included as part of your Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership, but none of the others are. Oh, and Breath of the Wild’s Nintendo Switch 2 Edition doesn’t come with its DLC, that’s still another $20 on its own. There's a lot to follow!
I may not be a game developer, but apart from things like mouse, microphone, or camera controls, there’s not much actual content in any of these expansions that appear to warrant being next-gen only. I’m sure most of these multiplayer minigames in Mario Wonder would work just fine on Switch 1, but for seemingly no reason other than to push people toward Nintendo’s next-gen console, they’re locked behind the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is actually the exception that handled this correctly, adding its new items and features in a free update for both Switch 1 and 2 players to enjoy, while keeping the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition upgrades limited to higher resolution, mouse controls, and other niceties that actually don’t work on Switch 1. That Nintendo Switch 2 Edition costs $65 standalone or $5 for the upgrade pack, if you’re keeping score at home.
The only two I haven’t mentioned yet are Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and Pokémon Legends: Z-A - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, which I don’t have much of a problem with. These two launched alongside their Switch 1 counterparts on the same day as cross-gen releases. They cost $10 more than the Switch 1 versions, and deliver higher resolution and framerates, but don’t feature any Switch 2-exclusive content. It’s still technically a paywalled performance update, but it feels slightly more acceptable when it’s a brand-new game rather than dusting off an old one.
In the grand scheme of things, this obviously isn’t the biggest deal in the world, and Nintendo has still put out plenty of actual Switch 2 games like Bananza, Mario Kart World, Kirby Air Riders, and more. But in an era where being a Nintendo fan is the most expensive it’s been since the cartridge days of the Nintendo 64, the Nintendo Switch 2 Editions feel like the most egregious example of Nintendo squeezing its most dedicated fans for a few extra dollars. It seems Nintendo wanted to repeat its strategy from the last console generation of porting as many Wii U games as possible to Nintendo Switch to make some more money and make the wait for the next truly new thing feel shorter, but it just isn’t coming across the same way this time. There were barely any Wii U owners – as of this morning, Switch 2 has already passed Wii U's lifetime sales in just seven months – so enhanced ports like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury were basically new games to most of the audience. And even though it was unfortunate that people who already owned these games on Wii U had to pay full price again to get them on Switch because of the shift from discs back to cartridges, they didn’t cost $5, $10, or even $20 more than they did originally for people jumping in for the first time.
Surely we’re still in the first wave of Nintendo Switch 2 Editions that were planned before the Switch 2 launched, so it’ll be interesting to see if Nintendo continues pumping them out based on how the marketplace responds. It’s tough to get a comprehensive grasp of their success because of how Nintendo reports its sales data across upgrade packs and the two platforms, but it’s worth noting they've failed to provide updated numbers for Kirby at all in the last two quarterly financial reports, suggesting its totals were likely soft. It’s entirely possible one reason these Editions exist to train studios on how to develop for more powerful hardware on projects with a short turnaround time, and now those teams are onto the next new 2D Mario, Animal Crossing, Kirby, and Mario Party with a bit more knowledge. I hope all of Nintendo’s teams swiftly move on, because this is a pattern I don’t really want to continue for the rest of the generation.
Logan Plant is the host of Nintendo Voice Chat and IGN's Database Manager & Playlist Editor. The Legend of Zelda is his favorite video game franchise of all time, and he is patiently awaiting the day Nintendo announces a brand new F-Zero. You can find new episodes of NVC every Friday on the IGN Games YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.
Pickleball may be slowly taking over tennis courts across the country, but in the Mushroom Kingdom, tennis is still on top, as hundreds of Toads and Koopas flock to sold-out stadiums to watch Mario and friends compete in the superior sport. As a lifelong tennis player and Mario fan (who is only slightly bitter that my favorite local court is now covered with obnoxious, highlighter-yellow tape denoting pickleball lines), I’ve always been drawn to the crossover between these two passions of mine, so I was very excited to check out a few short matches of Mario Tennis Fever at a Switch 2 preview event last week.
I led off discussing the crowd because that was one of the first things I noticed when my character (cursed newcomer Baby Waluigi, of course), trotted out to the court. The fans in the stands look fantastic, with fully detailed character models who react to the match by intensely following the ball as it’s rallied back and forth. Fever is a noticeable visual improvement from its predecessor, 2018’s Mario Tennis Aces on the original Switch, and that was immediately apparent when looking at background features like the spectators, or the more nicely detailed character models with improved texture on clothing and more lively facial features, including the far more expressive Donkey Kong redesign as seen in Donkey Kong Bananza and Mario Kart World. It’s nice to see developer Camelot’s Switch 2 debut looking so clean, especially after 2021’s Mario Golf: Super Rush was downright ugly at times.
The last couple generations of Mario sports games have seemed rushed – or even unfinished. The Wii U’s Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash was one of the most barebones games Nintendo has ever shipped. While Aces was certainly a more finished product, it still took years of updates to reach the amount of content many people thought it should’ve had at launch, and basically identical complaints were lobbed at Super Rush when it was released. So all eyes have been on Fever to see if it can break the trend of Mario sports games launching with an underwhelming amount of stuff to do, and based on my time with it so far, I think Camelot heard the criticism and packed Fever with the most content and variety we’ve potentially ever seen in a Mario Tennis game. I’m just hoping all the shiny new toys don’t water down the core tennis gameplay too much.
I’ve Got a Fever, and the Only Cure Is More Rackets
Much of that variety comes from the new Fever Rackets, this entry’s core mechanic that hugely transforms the way each point plays out. There are 30 to choose from, each with a special ability that can be unleashed when your Fever Gauge is full. There’s a Bullet Bill racket that transforms the ball into the recognizable missile and blasts over the net at high speed, or the Lightning Racket that summons damaging bolts of electricity to your opponent’s side of the court.
Fever Rackets completely dominate the point-to-point action.
The Fever Rackets add a lot of Mario Kart or Party seasoning to the classic tennis gameplay, and it was a lot of fun to pick a different power each time to see which one worked the best. They aren’t carefully competitively balanced: the Chargin’ Chuck racket that morphed the tennis ball into a football moved so slowly that it appeared to help my opponent more than it helped me, while the Bullet Bill shot moved so fast that deploying it usually resulted in an instant win. I only played a handful of matches in total, so there’s obviously lots of nuance to uncover with each racket type, but I think there are definitely a few that will emerge as early favorites online.
What’s really cool is that there’s a built-in mechanic that works to even the playing field even if the powers themselves are unbalanced. When someone launches a Fever Shot, it only activates in most cases when the ball hits the ground, leading to a tense back-and-forth volley where you do everything in your power to hit the ball before it bounces, like one instance where my opponent and I must have hit a wicked fast Bullet Bill back and forth at least 10 times before it finally hit the ground. This means you can turn the tables on your opponent and launch their self-selected ability back at them, and I really love the added risk-reward wrinkle you have to consider when choosing your Fever Racket.
Getting hit by an effect like lightning or fire lowers your HP, and when it hits zero, either your movement speed is reduced (in singles) or you have to sit on the sidelines until you recover (in doubles), giving your opponent a huge opportunity to win the point. Health bar management in a tennis game is a neat idea in how it gives you more to keep track of during the match, but it leads to one of my biggest concerns so far, which is how the presence of Fever Rackets completely dominates the point-to-point action. The gauge charges up quickly enough that at least one player activates it pretty much every single rally, and the effects are so impactful that they usually have a hand in deciding who wins the point. It was almost like a waiting game of hitting the ball back and forth until someone had their Fever Shot ready, and then the point would truly begin. It’s still fun, but as someone who loved the competitive nature of Aces that resembled a fighting game at times, the more party-focused approach here is going to take some getting used to.
Mid-Range Floaters
In line with that party game approach, the tennis mechanics themselves felt somewhat simplified compared to prior entries, likely to keep things manageable due to the added chaos Fever Rackets bring. Serves, returns, and lobs are slower and floatier than Aces, and it felt harder to put shots away on pure tennis skill alone. Again, I’ll need to sink a lot of time into the full game to see if those feelings stick, but so far, Fever succeeds far more as a party game than a tennis game, which I’m honestly fairly mixed on. In doubles, for example, four different Fever abilities constantly in play was just too chaotic for my liking, with fire bars, banana peels, ink, and more completely obscuring the court. While I didn’t get to try it myself, it appears you can play without Fever Rackets as an option too if you’re looking for more classic tennis competition.
And, I did enjoy several parts of the tennis itself. Each character in Fever’s huge roster of 38 choices still has their own strengths and weaknesses, like Boo’s aggressive backspin that can catch opponents off guard. There are also different types of tennis balls to select before the match begins, including a higher speed ball that leads to slightly more competitive matches than the standard one. And if getting drilled in the face with the ball wasn’t embarrassing enough in past games, body shots deal damage now, adding even more insult to injury.
I loved seeing Mario Wonder's singing Piranha Plants march onto the court.
The biggest remaining questions surround Fever’s single-player content, like its adventure mode and challenge tower that will hopefully provide plenty to do. I wasn’t allowed to check out those modes, but I did get to play on the Super Mario Bros. Wonder-inspired Wonder Court, which was another great sign for the amount of variety Fever has in store. Here, we were competing to earn the most Wonder Seeds, which could be won through either standard tennis points, or by scoring during the Wonder Effect that took over halfway through the match. This time, Wonder’s iconic singing Piranha Plants marched onto the court, and you could add to your total by hitting the ball at them to expose the seeds they were protecting, and then hitting the seeds to score. This was really fun, and a highlight of my demo, as it was a great blend of Mario flair and more focused tennis aiming and skill that I look for in this series.
Logan Plant is the host of Nintendo Voice Chat and IGN's Database Manager & Playlist Editor. The Legend of Zelda is his favorite video game franchise of all time, and he is patiently awaiting the day Nintendo announces a brand new F-Zero. You can find new episodes of NVC every Friday on the IGN Games YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.
Epic launched its Epic Games Store back in 2018 in aggressive fashion, paying out millions of dollars to secure exclusives in a bid to steer PC gamers away from Valve’s all-encompassing Steam. Six years later, Steam effortlessly maintains its vice-like grip on the PC gamer consciousness.
So, how is the Epic Games Store actually doing? How has its strategy changed over the years? Can it ever topple Valve when it comes to PC gaming market share? Are Epic Games Store exclusives actually dead? And aren’t people just logging on to grab a free game as part of Epic’s compelling giveaways, before heading straight back to Steam?
It was with all this in mind that I interviewed Steve Allison, VP and GM of the Epic Games Store, about the store's 2025 and what's coming in 2026. Our chat began with a runthrough of last year's performance, which Allison pointed to throughout. The headline here is that $400 million was spent by players on third-party PC games in the Epic Games Store in 2025, up an impressive 57%. This figure was down about 18% last year, which, Allison said, means 2025 saw a “profound and positive change.” In total, $1.16 billion was spent by PC players on the Epic Games Store, up 6%. The Epic Games Store hit 78 million Monthly Average Users (MAUs) in December 2025, an all-time record. But the 67 million average MAU is down 1%, and the 31 million average DAU is down 2%.
Allison said Epic had noticed something happening on Steam when it gave a game away for free. As you’d expect, concurrent user numbers rise for a game on the Epic Games Store when it’s part of a free giveaway (over 77% of the 100 games given away for free last year set all-time peak concurrent users records on the Epic Games Store on PC). But the giveaways also cause a concurrent player spike for the game on Steam, of around 40%. Allison puts this down to Steam players who perhaps already have the game in their library and see coverage of it online because it’s gone free on the Epic Games Store, and their friends are talking about it, so they reinstall and dip back in. Sometimes they just buy it on Steam outright.
But Epic faces an uphill battle here, mostly because the Epic Games Store itself just isn’t as good to use as Steam for a whole bunch of reasons. To combat this, Epic is rebuilding the store on PC so the launcher is faster and doesn’t use as many memory resources. “It should feel fast and snappy and just be what you expect, frankly,” Allison said. The new and improved Epic Games Store should ship by June.
Epic’s vision for the Epic Games Store — and its point of difference with Steam — is that it’s a multiplatform store. That means one store connected across PC, Mac, iOS, and Android, and even other games. A big part of this is voice and text for parties independent of games, a bit like the console experience, but on PC and mobile. As most PC gamers know, community is pretty much non-existent on the Epic Games Store, and Allison acknowledged that. Forums are coming to the store, which sounds basic but has been in the works for some time. Expect Epic to make some noise about forums in the next few weeks.
And then there’s Fortnite. The battle royale behemoth. The everything game. Fortnite is key to this Epic Games Store push. It plans to use Fortnite to convince PC gamers to get their games from the Epic Games Store rather than Steam. To do that, it will tap into the marketing power of Fortnite, offering a Fortnite gift (a Fortnite cosmetic along with a matching character avatar for their Epic account profile) with a purchase of a game. Upcoming partners include Capcom, miHoYo, Pearl Abyss (Crimson Desert), S-Game, MintRocket, and Kakao Games, as the first to participate. Allison expects this to have a significant impact on sales.
After running through the stats, I asked Allison some questions on the details, some recent Epic Games Store controversies (Alan Wake 2, for example!), and about the master plan. Here’s the Q&A in full:
IGN: The perception online is that most of your MAUs are using the store to launch Fortnite, but you are suggesting that the stats counter that perception. But how exactly so?
Steve Allison: Our average monthly active users on third-party exceeds our average monthly active users on Fortnite. Now a lot of those users — it depends on how you define monthly active users — but in terms of player hours, yes, you're right. It's kind of 60, 66, 33 or 65, 35. But in terms of MAU, shopping, looking at stuff, maybe making transactions for free games or whatever, the MAU is flipped in the other direction. So we need to increase conversion through all the work that we're doing. That's what this is all about.
IGN: Similarly there is that perception online that people love your free games program, they dip in to grab the free games and leave. You must've seen this perception online. Are you seeing that shifting? Is there anything in the stats that suggests that?
Steve Allison: I think the answer is, not entirely true, right? The average conversion rate for a new player that's acquired through the free games program is about 16-25%. Depends, but no less than 16% over time. It's a pretty high conversion rate for scale. So that's one fact. The other is, you got to go back to that 35% of player hours coming from games using their own IAP (their own payment solutions for in-app purchases). We know anecdotally talking with Riot, talking with EA, the relationship on that spend is with the developer or the publisher. We don't see it and they're spending with them relatively at the expected rate that they would assume. So there's more commerce coming through the store than that argument would imply.
IGN: This touches on something the Larian publishing director was talking about on social media recently, which is that giving everyone everything for free might bump numbers but doesn't create a viable storefront from which to sell premium experiences. And I think that's his point, the conversion not just to play but to pay for new games. But you are suggesting that perhaps isn't the case?
Steve Allison: It's not the case. He was trying to frame Alan Wake in that context and it's just not true. Alan Wake sold really well and Remedy's statement there was on… we didn't talk to Remedy about it. They did that on their own to make sure that the world knew that wasn't true. Now, from a market share standpoint, we see some volatility there. So sometimes it'll be as small as a percent or two, and sometimes it'll be 25 up to 40% in some cases. So what we need to do is establish consistency and eliminate volatility. So it's really important for me that we get to… if we get to 20, 25, 30% of share predictably on all simultaneous ships, we will be $2 billion in third-party and that, including the people using IAP, right, so it'd be more. So our goal is really to be consistent. And so doing all the player work that's expected of us is going to drive conversion. And just in context of this conversation, that's one of the biggest things we need to do in order to create that consistency.
IGN: Bringing up Alan Wake, one of the things that isn't in your post is exclusives. Alan Wake too was a genuine exclusive. Are you still in this game? Are they still valuable for you? Is this something we're still going to see moving forward or do you take the position that actually there are better ways for you to operate the store than to have genuine exclusives in the way that Alan Wake 2 was?
Steve Allison: A couple things. So that was definitely a strategy early. There's so many releases on PC and we could add a thousand games and strike out a thousand times. So we focused on the most impactful content we could onboard, when we had some limitations on how many things we could bring on board. It's really important. We have 6,000 games on the catalog now. We've done less than 150 deals for exclusives in the history of the store. That's the first point I would make. And 120 of those deals we did in 2019. And then as we moved into self-publishing, we've kind of floated away from that strategy.
In the case of Alan Wake, we also have a third-party publishing team that is part of the store organization. We’ll fund projects differently than those minimum guarantee-based deals. We'll fund projects, we'll help them bring the games to market across all platforms, but the PC SKUs will be exclusive in that case. But we have eight, nine titles that we're funding through Epic Games Publishing right now. Other than that, we haven't done a minimum guarantee-style deal in about three years. So our strategy shifted there. But if we fund and publish the title, the context is a lot different than the conversation that happens on how we did things in 2019. And we own that. That was really successful for us. Things have changed and the publishing businesses, those games will be exclusive from the store.
IGN: It'd be great to get some insight on the long-term play here. You're up against Steam, which is a huge competitor, very difficult to shift, not just in terms of the stats, but the mindset. And I've always heard, not just anecdotally but from Epic people that the Epic Games Store is not profitable. Is the goal to grow bigger than Steam? Is that actually feasible? Are you profitable? Can you ever be profitable in this venture?
Steve Allison: So there's a couple ways of looking at it. When you talk about Steam, you talk about everything including their first-party games. If you talk about the Epic Games Store, first-party plus third-party, and you just credit the store with 12% of the revenue that comes from Epic's first-party games, which isn't how we do accounting, but we sometimes do these views internally, the store is pass break even and reasonably, marginally profitable.
On the third-party side on its own in isolation, right now we continue to invest. We have a ton of work to do. We invest in these programs for developers. We will continue to invest in content through publishing. And that investment is going to show up as sunk costs. But it's all in the context of scaling. But if we get to 25, 30% market share, which is our plan… yes, if we do such a great job that we push share past Steam or whatever, I think we'll be super happy. But our goal isn't to dance on top of Steam's grave or anything like that. It's to establish a consistent place where developers can expect to sell 25-30% of their games. That will, when we get there, we will be profitable in third-party and we'll be very profitable with third-party plus first-party.
Third-party is where we're investing. We got to do all this work. Remember also it's like 60% of our audience uses both. 40% doesn’t. There's a bunch of that audience on Steam that will never turn, but we continue to get a cohort of players that are discovering PC gaming for the first time. They're shifting from console. We're going to have different feature sets, different opportunity around the multi-platform store. It's all about establishing the consistent performance of market spending, like 25-30% now. And if we blow past that, we'll be super stoked, but once we get there we'll be in good shape.
IGN: So, just to clarify, is the Epic Games Store profitable?
Steve Allison: First-party, very profitable. First-party plus third-party, if you credit the store 12% of first-party's revenue like it was a customer on the store, profitable… slightly.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Capcom is one of the strongest third-party publishers on Switch 2 so far. It released an excellent port of Street Fighter 6 on the console’s launch day, and it’s keeping the momentum going in 2026 by bringing most of its big games to the platform, including Resident Evil Requiem, Pragmata, and Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection (with dedicated amiibo figures for all three games!). I went hands-on with Resident Evil and Pragmata on Switch 2 in both handheld and docked mode, and was extremely impressed with how these two slightly scaled down experiences are shaping up.
As you’d reasonably expect, the Switch 2 versions clearly don’t have the same fidelity as their counterparts on PC or the other consoles, but if you only have a Switch 2 or really value bringing your games on the go, the versions I saw were perfectly viable and didn’t make me wish I was playing on one of my beefier machines at home. Plus, I really enjoyed both games separate from my evaluation of their performance, and think they will each make excellent additions to Switch 2’s growing third-party lineup.
Resident Evil Requiem: Switch 2 Impressions
Let’s start with Resident Evil. The demo I tried on Switch 2 was nothing new if you’ve been following the lead-up to Requiem. I controlled newcomer Grace Ashcroft as she woke up on an examination table in a medical bay. This section sees Grace tiptoeing around dark hallways that are occasionally illuminated by flickering lights or blinking red alarms. It builds a lot of tension in these opening moments, like when I turned a corner to see an unidentifiable mass in the distance, only to cautiously approach it and see it’s just a horse statue staring back at me.
I was immediately impressed by Grace’s character model and animations in the demo’s introductory cutscene. It opens with a closeup shot of her eye, and it looked very detailed and pulled me into the world right away. That strong first impression carried through the rest of the demo. Requiem appears to shoot for 60 fps on Switch 2, and I didn’t notice any drops throughout my session. Granted, this is not a very action-heavy portion of the game – Grace is completely unarmed for the entirety of this segment besides glass bottles she can throw as distractions – but it was still great to see the Switch 2 keeping up with Requiem so far.
Requiem shoots for a smooth 60 fps on Switch 2, and I didn’t notice any major drops.
Eventually, I found a lighter that let me explore a previously pitch black hallway I’d skipped earlier. The lighting effects that the lighter projected onto the wall may not have been as complex as on the other platforms, but it’s certainly not bad, and if I weren’t looking at it with a very critical eye, I probably wouldn’t have noticed. This dark hallway led to the main confrontation of the demo: a game of cat and mouse against a towering, terrifying monster with long, disgusting fingers that chased after Grace for the remainder of my playtime. It was very intense, and the biggest compliment I can give Resident Evil Requiem on Switch 2 is that I was so terrified by being relentlessly stalked by this monster that any concerns I had about the version I was playing instantly melted away. All I could focus on was Grace’s survival.
After wrapping up the demo on the television from Grace’s first-person perspective, I swapped to the slightly less stressful third-person perspective in handheld mode and was similarly enthused with what I saw. Honestly, I think Resident Evil is far more fitting as a big screen experience with the lights turned off, but if you want to play it in handheld, the Switch 2 delivered a solid experience in this demo. There’s a noticeable resolution difference switching from the 4K television to the 1080p Switch 2 screen, but it still looked great and maintained solid performance, too. In third-person, I really like how Grace stumbled and tripped over herself while initially running away from the monster. She’s clearly as terrified and stressed as we are, and that small detail really sold it. I didn’t get to play as Leon Kennedy, but based on Dale Driver’s recent preview, I’m excited to try the more action-heavy portions that will balance out the terror I felt after completing Grace’s demo. Resident Evil Requiem is coming to Switch 2 (and other platforms) on February 27, and on the same day, Capcom is releasing Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village on Switch 2 as well.
Pragmata: Switch 2 Impressions
Requiem is bringing the newest entry in one of Capcom’s most historic franchises to Nintendo players. On the other side of the coin, Pragmata is Capcom’s newest IP that’s also debuting on Switch 2. This sci-fi third-person shooter stars a soldier named Hugh and an android he names Diana as they explore a lunar research facility filled with hostile robots. I played the Sketchbook demo, which is the same slice of the game currently available to try on PC and coming to consoles at a later date. It covers Hugh and Diane’s introduction all the way through the first boss encounter.
Pragmata on Switch 2 was similarly impressive, but I did notice a few more rough edges and fuzzier details compared to Requiem. My theory is that’s because Pragmata takes place in far brighter, bigger areas than Resident Evil’s claustrophobic hallways, exposing some more of its shortcomings. But with that said, it still ran very well and felt great to play, even in its more action-focused combat scenarios.
And I really like the spin Pragmata puts on third-person shooting. Hugh and Diana have to work together to take down enemies, as Diana hacks into the androids to deal damage, slow them down, and expose weak points. Hacking is represented by a grid minigame that appears when you target an enemy, where you press the face buttons to navigate a cursor to the goal as quickly as you can, passing through damage multipliers on your way. It’s snappy and satisfying to pull off, made better by the fact that the action doesn’t stop when you’re hacking as Diana, meaning you still have to aim, shoot, and dodge as Hugh at the same time. It’s immediately fun to split your attention between the two objectives, and I’m excited to see how Pragmata builds upon its unique foundation deeper in the campaign.
It’s immediately fun to split your attention between Pragmata's hacking and shooting.
Running around the space station and solving light hacking puzzles was fun, too, and the heft of Hugh’s armor was sold by Switch 2’s HD rumble, as I could feel each footstep on the proper side of the controller. Just like Requiem, Pragmata was downgraded in handheld mode but still totally playable. Responsiveness is very important in Pragmata because of all its quick-time events, and the Switch 2 didn’t miss a beat in this demo.
Logan Plant is the host of Nintendo Voice Chat and IGN's Database Manager & Playlist Editor. The Legend of Zelda is his favorite video game franchise of all time, and he is patiently awaiting the day Nintendo announces a brand new F-Zero. You can find new episodes of NVC every Friday on the IGN Games YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.
It's smart to have a light source on hand for emergencies, especially since everyday carry flashlights can be had for a throwaway price. The Sofirn brand is extremely popular amongst the enthusiast flashlight community for the amount the light they throw out at a bargain price. Sofirn's official store on AliExpress routinely sells these flashlights at up to 50% less than on Amazon. They ship free from a local US warehouse, which means no hidden tariffs or obnoxious shipping times.
Sofirn Q8 Plus 16,000-Lumen LED Flashlight for $56.75
Arguably the better deal of the two flashlights here is the Sofirn Q8 Plus. It's currently $56.75 after $7 off coupon code "07USAFF". This exact flashlight sells for $120 on Amazon.
The Q8 Plus is a beefly flashlight, measuring a modest 5.2 inches long but weighing in at just over one pound. This is an incredibly bright light with a maximum 16,000 lumen output and a throw distance of 554 meters (over 1/3 of a mile) thanks to six Cree XHP50B LEDs each with its own reflector. The light can be adjusted down to extend battery life. The hefty body acts as a heatsink that keeps the LEDs from thermally throttling, although the flashlight can get quite warm during extended usage under maximum power. Power is supplied by three 21700 batteries (which are included) that can also be charged over USB-C.
I purchased this flashlight for about the same price at AliExpress last year. It arrived quickly and was packaged in a retail box. The flashlight was in new condition and all the accessories were included.
Sofirn SP36 Pro 8,000-Lumen LED Flashlight for $32.57
The powerful yet compact Sofirn SP36 Pro 8,000-Lumen Rechargeable LED Flashlight has also dropped in price to $32.57 after you apply $4 off coupon code "04USAFF". This exact flashlight sells for $70 on Amazon.
The Sofirn SP36 Pro is a compact EDC style flashlight, measuring just 5" in length and weighing about 10 ounces without the battery. It features a rugged aluminum shell and has an IPX8 rating, which means it can be submerged in water up to 1 meter deep. The flashlight comes with three 18650 Li-on batteries that can be recharged with a USB Type-C cable.
The light array is comprised of four Luminus SST-40 LEDs each with is own individual reflector. They combine for a maximum output of 8,000 lumens and a beam distance of up to 450 meters, which means that this little flashlight can illuminate an entire football field. The intensity is adjustable so you can conserve battery life.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
This year marks 50 years since The Muppet Show debuted in syndication on US television, making a frog, a pig, a bear, a Gonzo, and the rest of the show’s felt menagerie into global superstars. In the most full circle of full circle examples, ABC and Disney+ have put the band back together in a special test pilot for a Seth Rogen revival of The Muppet Show.
A lot of the words in that last sentence are whiplash inducing, but the thing to cling onto is that it’s a revival of The Muppet Show. Fans of Jim Henson’s puppet creations have long been begging someone in the entertainment industry who loves the Muppets to just make a new Muppet Show; bless Rogen for heeding the call and ending our decade’s-long whining.
If you’re not familiar with the recent history of The Muppets: In 1990, Jim Henson tragically passed away from toxic shock syndrome, and in 2004, the Muppets IP was bought by the Walt Disney Company. That’s been a disappointing baton pass, because Disney has been incredibly inconsistent in knowing what to do with Kermit and his pals, banishing them to viral shorts or trying to force them into weird high-concept ideas like 2015’s mockumentary series, The Muppets.
While trying new ideas and not getting stuck in a taciturn nostalgia loop is always encouraged, the problem with many Disney-era Muppet projects is that they often reek of an executive mandate to “update the Muppets and make them cool and hip for today.” The problem with that thinking is that it proves they’re being played with by creatives who fundamentally do not understand why the Muppets work – they’re timeless. Kermit and his family of weirdos don’t belong in any era, because their brand of silly lives eternally in the relationships between the characters and their relentless desire to make audiences happy; it’s their True North.
Thankfully, Rogen gets that with his very soul, as does director Alex Timbers. Together, they’ve resurrected the variety show format, the classic Muppet theater set, and the stock cast of classic Muppet characters to make The Muppet Show in 2026, not for 2026.
From the moment Kermit’s felt hand turns the theater’s house lights on, I defy any viewer to resist the huge smile that will spontaneously bloom. If you’re of a certain age, the opening is like a time travel machine back to your childhood, and if you’re a kid, the comedic chaos of the show is attuned to your sensibilities as well.
From the moment Kermit’s felt hand turns the theater’s house lights on, I defy any viewer to resist the huge smile that will spontaneously bloom.
Like the original variety show, the episode has a special guest star in Sabrina Carpenter (also an executive producer), who shows up with the exact energy needed to match the insanity around her. She gets to sing in two different numbers and banter backstage with the Muppet players like she’s been doing it her whole life.
Unlike some revivals, The Muppet Show has a lived-in quality to it, likely because the primary performers are long-time Muppeteers like Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz, Eric Jacobson, Peter Linz, David Rudman, and Matt Vogel. They’ve lived their characters for at least a decade each and give pitch-perfect performances across the board…and if you don’t like the slight change in some character voices, get over it; the alternative is them getting moldy in an archive somewhere.
Kudos to pilot writers Albertina Rizzo, Kelly Younger, Gabe Liedman, and Andrew Williams for honoring the past with faithful sketch revivals and character temperaments while making this episode feel fresh and genuinely funny. Their new material, including a new Muppet, some novel camera framing, and cameo bits all add to the scale and scope of the world without trying too hard.
Hopefully, the heart and hilarity featured in The Muppet Show will be more than enough proof to give it a series order, because the world really needs Kermit and his pals more than ever.
A big sign of emotional maturity is owning up to your most embarrassing failures. For Nintendo, that past mistake is the Virtual Boy, and for the better part of three decades, the company has mostly ignored its most iconic commercial and critical fiasco, likely hoping we’d all just forget they ever released a tabletop headset that was known for causing splitting headaches and eyestrain with its limited red and black 3D graphics. Nintendo has never rereleased any of the Virtual Boy’s comically small library of just 22 games (several of which were exclusive to Japan), even when they launched a stereoscopic 3D handheld that would have been the perfect emulator. But 30 years later, Nintendo is finally ready to reminisce and poke some fun at this ridiculous footnote by bringing Virtual Boy to Switch 2 and Switch, complete with a very faithful (and expensive) accessory that recreates the original look and feel. And after playing several games that will be available in the launch lineup on February 17, I’m thrilled to finally be able to discover this lost corner of Nintendo history, even if there aren't very many games to dive into.
Even though they’re finally bringing some of these lost games back, Nintendo still isn’t making it very easy to access them. Virtual Boy - Nintendo Classics will be available for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers (that’s the more expensive tier that costs $49.99 annually for an individual membership here in the U.S.), and you’ll also need one of two accessories sold through Nintendo’s website to play them. The first choice is the $100 replica of the original hardware, and the second is a $25 cardboard model you hold up to your face like Nintendo’s experimental Labo VR set. You can slide your Switch or Switch 2 into either of these hollow models to supply the screen, and according to the fine print of the latest Virtual Boy trailer, you can only play these games with one of these two accessories – you can’t play them regularly in handheld mode or on your TV. The forgiving view of this decision is that Nintendo aims to preserve the original Virtual Boy experience as closely as possible, while the cynical view is that Nintendo just wants to squeeze more money out of its most hardcore fans for a silly novelty that probably won’t actually provide much playtime. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.
I only saw the cardboard version behind a glass case, but I did get to go hands-on with the replica and instantly fell in love. I pride myself on having played most games from across Nintendo’s entire history, but the Virtual Boy has always been a big red-and-black hole in my library. Secondhand Virtual Boys and game cartridges are simply too expensive, so I’ve never pulled the trigger even if I’ve been tempted several times by various Facebook Marketplace listings, always stopping short when I see the previous owner wrote their name on all their cartridges in permanent marker. So as a hardcore Nintendo enthusiast who enjoys learning about both the good and the bad of their history (and talking about it every week on Nintendo Voice Chat, IGN’s all-Nintendo podcast), I’m the exact target audience for this bonkers release.
The replica unit itself is really high quality.
The unit itself is really high quality. The headset rests on a two-legged stand with a knob you turn to adjust the viewing angle. If you squint or see it from a distance, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was an authentic Virtual Boy. The design is undeniably weird and cool, and I can’t wait to display it in my office. I sat down, looked through the red lenses, and saw the monochrome display staring right back at me. I wear glasses, so often when I try on VR headsets a bit of light bleeds through the sides, but the Virtual Boy’s rubber eye shade was big enough to completely block out 2026 and let me immerse myself entirely in 1996.
Seeing Red
I first dove into Wario Land, one of seven games included in the launch lineup and the game I’ve easily heard the best things about over the years. After just one level, I can see why it has a strong reputation. Apart from the lack of a varied color palette, it looked and played just like the classic Wario Land games, with Wario’s aggressive dash attacks and destructive platforming. This is a sidescroller, but it makes use of the stereoscopic 3D with obstacles like swinging iron balls that move toward and away from you, where the added depth helps you judge their location. Having never played Virtual Boy before, seeing Nintendo games in 3D again made me oddly nostalgic for early 3DS games that made good use of the 3D slider, like Super Mario 3D Land. Wario Land made use of the feature in its platforming, too, with segments that launched Wario into the foreground and background, an idea used a lot in platformers we’d get later like Mutant Mudds, Kirby Triple Deluxe, and Donkey Kong Country Returns. After Wario Land, I hopped around some of the rest of the launch lineup, including Golf and the Punch-Out!!-like Teleroboxer.
I only played for about 20 minutes, but I thankfully didn’t get a headache like the original hardware’s reputation would suggest. I’m honestly not sure how long I’ll play in one sitting when my own Virtual Boy preorder shows up in a couple weeks, because even though Wario Land was fun, it’s still kind of a pain to play. The edges of the screen were tough to see when looking in the unit, and it’s not the most comfortable feeling to crane your neck to look inside. At least it’s that authentic neck pain I’ve always wanted, though.
Would I recommend the average Nintendo fan drops $100 or even $25 to play these games? No, probably not. There are only seven of them to play at launch, and they are more enjoyable from a historical perspective than an entertainment one. You could buy seven superior indie games for 100 bucks that come in more than just one color. But if you love exploring wacky bygones from past eras and want a really cool accessory to display in your game room, you’ll probably really like the new Virtual Boy like I did. And there are more games coming after launch, including a previously unreleased F-Zero spinoff called Zero Racers, which is unbelievably exciting as an F-Zero superfan.
I walked away not sure which is crazier: the fact that Nintendo made this bizarre piece of hardware 30 years ago, or the fact that they are rereleasing it now. The Virtual Boy sold roughly 750,000 units worldwide, and I’m not sure the market for this retro rerelease is much larger than that. It’s incredibly niche, pretty expensive, and there are only a handful of games worth playing, but they still chose to bring it back. And that’s one reason I love covering Nintendo; they’re the crazy toymaker of the video game industry. Not every swing they take is a smash hit, and I’m so excited to finally learn everything about one of their worst misses.
Logan Plant is the host of Nintendo Voice Chat and IGN's Database Manager & Playlist Editor. The Legend of Zelda is his favorite video game franchise of all time, and he is patiently awaiting the day Nintendo announces a brand new F-Zero. You can find new episodes of NVC every Friday on the IGN Games YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.
Netflix is being removed from the PlayStation 3 — yes, the PlayStation 3 — on March 2, 2026.
The streaming service first hit PS3 via Blu-ray disc in 2009, with a native app arriving the following year so users didn't have to insert an instant streaming disc into their console. All these years later, Netflix still works on Sony’s 19-year-old console, but the party ends next month, according to a message now displayed by the Netflix app on PS3.
just tried booting up netflix on my PS3 and yeah it does infact give that message </3 pic.twitter.com/VcfQkj6bJV
Remarkably, some people were still using the Netflix app on PS3, including perhaps the appropriately named redditor ‘12_Ton_Brick_of_Weed,’ who said: “Welp, there goes the last way to watch Netflix natively in 4:3.”
“I imagine I'm one of like 10 people bummed by this haha,” they continued. “Netflix ps3 has been so convenient for watching old shows on a CRT in 4:3 without the black bars on the sides. Glad I got to use it while I still can and at least they gave a heads up haha.”
“TIL that Netflix was still on PS3,” someone replied. “I used it daily for my daughter. Definitely not the only one upset,” added another.
Perhaps with Netflix finally gone from the PS3, the streamer will find a place for it on the Nintendo Switch 2. Or perhaps not.
Photo by JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Helldivers 2's latest patch, Into the Unjust: 6.0.1., is rolling out now, adding a playable tank and interchangeable victory poses and emotes as part of a push towards the liberation of the Cyborg homeworld, Cyberstan.
"We have confirmed, with concrete proof and beyond any doubt, that the Automaton Collective stole our schematics for the Star of Peace. We cannot let them turn this defensive tool of peace into a destructive weapon of war," developer Arrowhead teased. "It's now up to you, our most elite and powerful force, to bring them to justice on their own turf.
"We have approved the deployment of new equipment for squads to aid in the swift elimination of the Automaton threat. Push toward Cyberstan and end this insult to Managed Democracy. Helldivers, let this be the last time the Automatons steal from Super Earth."
Highlights of the patch include the Bastion Tank, a new tank vehicle that is "ready to roll over entrenched enemies," and "offering unrivaled firepower and defense on the battlefield." Be warned, though — "it will require your team to work together to hunt down the enemy!"
You'll also see a 50% increase to base melee attack, changes to enemy behavior, and a trickier challenge in the game's hardest difficulties, with Arrowhead explaining that the "biggest change should be noticed on the Automaton front while Terminids and the Illuminate are less affected."
As for those aftermentioned Automatons? There's nothing specific about them in the patch notes beyond a cursory note that it's now confirmed that it was the Automatons that stole the Star of Peace schematics, but a fan-run Twitter/X account dedicated to Helldivers found this to share with us:
We have confirmed, with concrete proof and beyond any doubt, that the Automaton Collective stole our schematics for the Star of Peace. We cannot let them turn this defensive tool of peace into a destructive weapon of war. It's now up to you, our most elite and powerful force, to bring them to justice on their own turf.
We have approved the deployment of new equipment for squads to aid in the swift elimination of the Automaton threat.
Push toward Cyberstan and end this insult to Managed Democracy. Helldivers, let this be the last time the Automatons steal from Super Earth.
📍 Patch Highlights
Bastion Tank: A new tank vehicle is ready to roll over entrenched enemies! The Bastion Tank offers unrivaled firepower and defense on the battlefield. It will require your team to work together to hunt down the enemy! (2pm CET)
Chinese VO has been added to Helldivers 2!
Arm yourself with the latest premium Warbond Siegebreakers, loaded with a devastating hammer built for close-range persuasion and an upgrade to a Helldivers favorite, the LAS-16 Trident!
March into battle in style with the new War Horse set, available in the Superstore on February 10!
With a few exceptions, all victory poses and emotes are now interchangeable!
⚖️ Balancing
General changes overview
Melee weapons and Armor passive with increased melee damage re-balance
Intent is to make the Armor passive that increases melee damage less mandatory but still be useful to make melee weapons more effective.
We increased all the melee weapons damage and decreased the modifiers on the armor passives that increase melee damage.
Total damage with the melee armor passive will be higher or the same as before.
Base melee attack also got a 50% damage increase.
SMG and Pistol rounds less Sway
The intent is that the increased drag of SMG and Pistol which make it a close combat weapon and less effective at range is the main characteristic of these weapons.
We decreased the Sway modifier to be the same as most other weapons
Unify Weapon function directions inputs
The intent is to make the "weapon function modes" that are similar to be on the same "weapon function direction input".
This is to make it easier to remember which direction similar types of weapon functions are and also make it so you need to use less "quick weapon functions" inputs.
Weapon function modes that affect Programmable ammo, Ammo types, Volley modes, Safe modes, Guided modes will now be in the left direction.
We have not moved the underbarrel weapon switching option to the left yet, but we are looking into moving it to the left direction so all ammo altering switching is in the left direction even if it is an underbarrel selection that usually is in the down direction.
Difficulty on difficulty 9+
Made changes across all factions to increase the intensity on high difficulties, the biggest change should be noticed on the Automaton front while Terminids and the Illuminate are less affected.
Value changes
Primary weapons
R-2124 Constitution
Increased Bayonet melee damage from 110 to 165
Increased Bayonet melee durable damage from 55 to 83
R-2 Amendment
Increased Bayonet melee damage from 110 to 165
Increased Bayonet melee durable damage from 55 to 83
MP-98 Knight
Decreased sway modifier from 1.2 to 1
SMG-37 Defender
Decreased sway modifier from 1.2 to 1
SMG-72 Pummeler
Decreased sway modifier from 1.2 to 1
M7S SMG
Decreased sway modifier from 1.2 to 1
SG-20 Halt
Move the “ammo type” weapon function from Right to Left weapon function direction
DBS-2 Double Freedom
Move the “Volley/Semi mode” weapon function from Right to Left weapon function direction
Sidearms weapons
P-72 Crisper
Increased magazine capacity from 30 to 50
Decreased sway modifier from 1.2 to 1
P-2 Peacemaker
Decreased sway modifier from 1.2 to 1
LAS-58 Talon
Decreased sway modifier from 1.2 to 1
GP-31 Grenade Pistol
Decreased sway modifier from 1.2 to 1
LAS-7 Dagger
Decreased sway modifier from 1.2 to 1
P-113 Verdict
Decreased sway modifier from 1.2 to 1
M6C/SOCOM Pistol
Decreased sway modifier from 1.2 to 1
PLAS-15 Loyalist
Decreased sway modifier from 1.2 to 1
P-11 Stim Pistol
Decreased sway modifier from 1.2 to 1
SG-22 Bushwhacker
Decreased sway modifier from 1.3 to 1
Move the “Volley/Semi mode” weapon function from Right to Left weapon function direction
P-4 Senator
Decreased sway modifier from 1.3 to 1
GP-20 Ultimatum
Decreased sway modifier from 1.3 to 1
CQC-30 Stun Baton
Increased damage from 50 to 75
Increased durable damage from 25 to 38
CQC-19 Stun Lance
Increased damage from 110 to 165
Increased durable damage from 55 to 83
CQC-2 Saber
Increased damage from 125 to 188
Increased durable damage from 65 to 98
CQC-5 Combat Hatchet
Increased damage from 160 to 240
Increased durable damage from 80 to 120
CQC-42 Machete
Increased damage from 200 to 300
Increased durable damage from 100 to 150
Throwables
G-7 Pineapple
Increased max amount uses 3 to 4
Increased start amount uses 2 to 3
G-31 Arc
Increased max amount uses 4 to 5
Increased start amount uses 3 to 4
Stratagems
SH-20 Ballistic Shield Backpack
Shorter cooldown from 300 to 240 sec
Orbital Smoke Strike
Shorter cooldown from 100 to 75 sec
CQC-9 Defoliation Tool
Increased damage from 300 to 450
Increased durable damage from 150 to 225
CQC-1 One True Flag
Increased damage from 110 to 200
Increased durable damage from 55 to 100
RS-422 Railgun
Move the “Safe/Unsafe mode” weapon function from Right to Left weapon function direction
StA-X3 W.A.S.P. Launcher
Move the “Programmable ammo mode” weapon function from Right to Left weapon function direction
GL-21 Grenade Launcher
Increased armor penetration level from Medium to Heavy
Armor passives
Peak Physique
Decreased melee damage bonus from 100% to 40%
Rock Solid
Decreased melee damage bonus from 100% to 40%
Reinforced Epaulettes
Decreased melee damage bonus from 50% to 20%
Enemies
General
Some enemies have had their damage vs durable rebalanced to adjust for Helldiver vehicles with large health pools. It will not change their effectiveness against normal Helldivers, only their vehicles.
Things like attacks from Bile Titans, Chargers, Crescent Overseers, Overseers, Rocket firing Automatons, Hulk melee attacks, mortars, acid etc have gotten values adjusted. Some of the adjustments only affect certain targets (ie the Bastion). Other adjustments also affect the FRV and Exosuits.
Enemies Aim calculations were not always updated when there were many enemies trying to aim, making Automatons on higher difficulties a bit bad at aiming. They should now attempt to update the aim better considering the data they have before they get another proper aim update. This means that Automatons will aim better even when there are a lot of them without any further cost to performance.
Terminids
Dragon roach
lowered the direct damage from the flame attack by 25%
Automatons
Rocket Raider
Rockets now deals increased damage vs Durable targets
Devastator
Removed durable on arms
Rocket Devastator
Rockets now deals increased damage vs Durable targets
Hulk Bruiser
Rockets now deals increased damage vs Durable targets
Gunship
updated its targeting software and should now be better at hitting their targets
Rockets now deals increased damage vs Durable targets
Illuminate
Overseer
Overseer`s weapon now deals increased damage vs Durable targets
Crescent Overseer
Increased force on artillery attack to stagger the Helldiver
Increased the damage of its direct shot attack
Crescent Overseer`s weapon now deals increased damage vs Durable targets
🎮 Gameplay
Emotes and Victory poses
Emotes and victory poses are now interchangeable. Except for a few exceptions like emotes that require 2 people, the kick and a few others, all the victory poses can now be used as emotes and all emotes can now be used as victory poses
🔧 Fixes
Hang Detection
As part of our ongoing war against bugs and instability we have introduced a “hang detection” feature in the PC version. If the game hangs (freezes) for more than 20 seconds then this new feature will crash the game instead of letting it stay hung. This generates a file called a “crash dump” which contains important debugging information for our programmers to diagnose and fix the root cause of the hang.
If you experience a hang, please wait at least 40 seconds before restarting your PC to allow the hang detector to do its job.
If you experience a 20+ second hang followed by a crash:
If the crash reporting window shows up then please submit the report as usual.
If the crash reporting window doesn’t show up (it can fail), we humbly request that you share the crash dump file with our player support team (https://arrowhead.zendesk.com/). They will be able to assist you in locating and sharing the crash dump file.
With your help, we can eliminate these issues once and for all!
Crash Fixes
Fixed a rare crash caused by weapon customization desynchronization
Fixed a rare crash that would occur when players would access the Galactic Map
Fixed a crash caused by Automatons in Lava Missions
Weapons & Stratagem Fixes
The RS-422 Railgun magazine during reload animation is now visible
When finishing an Eradication mission after the mission time has run out, an over-zealous second Pelican pilot will no longer heroically try to extract our noble Helldivers if another is already en route
AX/FLAM-75 "Guard Dog" Hot Dog has its sound effects fixed
AR/GL-21 One-Two underbarrel explosions sound effects are now fixed
MLS-4X Commando rockets will now target properly, rather than targeting the last place the Helldiver aims at
Fixed an issue where the R-36 Eruptor displayed incorrect zoom levels options when using non-zoomed scope attachments
Fixed a bug where the B-1 Supply Pack would give infinite supplies when dropped
Fixed the visual glitches that appear in the preview section of the Weapon Customization Menu
Helldivers can now reload whilst inside an M-102 Fast Reconnaissance Vehicle
B-1 Supply Pack can no longer be used on Helldivers when their ammo, grenades and stims are full
Fixed bug where story campaign operations would not persist between game sessions
Projectiles from turret stratagems will now also hit their owners
The Ministry of Defense has installed scrubbing chips on the Ground All-Terrain Extraction Rig, preventing accidental lock-on by smart weaponry
RS-422 Railgun now properly displays the clip during the Reload animation if the player reloads the weapon immediately after firing
When cancelling a reload after a new projectile was made visible, but before it was put into the weapon; the weapon would display the new shell in the weapon, even with the weapon empty. The weapons will now correctly display if it is ready to fire or not
Heat based weapons are now displaying overheating properly, in the Weapon Function Menu
Kills with "One True Flag" will now count towards Major Order kills
Fixed the M-1000 Maxigun wind-up sounds which would sometimes not play properly
Player can no longer throw multiple stratagems after entering and exiting emplacements
Grenade launcher shots and explosions from AR/GL-21 One-Two rifle should now be visible when shot by other players
P-92 Warrant
Made the drag and gravity the same on the non-guided projectile as the last patch change for the guided projectile.
Move the “Guided mode/None Guided mode” weapon function from Right to Left weapon function direction
Enemies
Enemies have learned how to target better
Fixed spawn rate on Rapid Acquisition missions on difficulty CR7-10. Adjusted spawn points on Rapid Acquisition map
Miscellaneous Fixes
Automaton dropships will now move less erratically when dropping enemies
Fix incorrect camera positioning when transitioning to first person while reloading
Fixed an issue where players could land on Command Bunkers in city missions
Fixed certain items not being interactable inside specific PoIs on Magma planets
Solved terrain height changing when approaching or moving away from a deformed piece of terrain, causing a weird visual effect
Exiting a vehicle now properly inherits the vehicle`s velocity
High-Command has now authorized Commando Operations to be carried out on all Automaton controlled planets. They will frequently be available to choose alongside the regular Peace Keeping Operations going forward
Fix damage inconsistencies between client and host damage. Clients should no longer do less damage than the host
Players no longer get stuck under the bridge during Rapid Acquisition missions
The Helldiver properly follows hand position protocols when activating power stations
Camera correctly points towards the Hellidver during the push-up emote
The battery light will now turn off after its delivery during “Seize Fusion Batteries” objective
Draw! Emote no longer locks melee weapons
Adjusted Automaton scanner glow - they will no longer shine white whilst scanning for Helldivers
The Super Earth Flag is now correctly playing the Super Earth Anthem when using the stratagem during Hive World Missions
The Helldiver now moves their hands away from terminal screens to not block sight to whoever is looking over their shoulder
[Xbox Only] Smoke will no longer display green artifacts on red planets
The Guard Dog series of stratagems have had their names shortened to improve readability. They’re still your loyal companions, but now with shorter, easier to read names.
Optimizations
We improved fog density / visibility between Volumetric Fog Quality settings, making the Lowest and Low settings match
Improved performance of building material found in colonies and cities
Removed the light-source that was attached to the Helldiver, which was used for making dark environments brighter near the player; tweaked and improved playability and visibility in darker environments instead
Fixed an issue that was causing some players to get a "10002026" error during login attempt
Implemented performance improvements affecting explosions and general destruction, primarily surrounding bot factories
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Ubisoft is yet to formally announce its Tom Clancy's The Division: Definitive Edition, but you can now purchase it via the Xbox store. Unfortunately, however, its release has confirmed exactly what this new version of the game entails — and it's not the remake or remaster that some fans had expected.
On Xbox at least, you can now pay $49.99 to own Ubisoft's 2016 extraction shooter and all of its add-on content, including the game's three expansions, season pass, and various DLC outfits.
There does not appear to be any new content here — or any new versions of existing content, either. This has come as something of a surprise to fans who had spotted advertising for the game's Definitive Edition pop up last month alongside new merchandise, just in time for the game's 10th anniversary.
"Get the complete The Division experience in this Definitive Edition!" Ubisoft's blurb reads. "The base game, all three Season Pass expansions, and multiple cosmetic packs await you. Restore order and rebuild New York City after a devastating pandemic in this tactical open world third-person shooter.
"The Definitive Edition also includes gear sets, weapon skins, and customization options, everything you need to stand out as an elite agent."
"So, The Division 3 is in production, right? This is not a secret. It's been announced. It's shaping up to be a monster," Gerighty said. "I can't really say anything more than that. But this is, within these walls in Massive, we are working extremely hard on something that I think will be as big an impact as Division 1 was."
For Stardew Valley's 10th anniversary, we didn't just speak to creator Eric Barone (ConcernedApe) about the game's present and future. We also went out into the community to find out how Stardew Valley has changed the lives of its players, from everyday fans to popular content creators. Here, we've shared three stories – from a music farm creator, a speedrunner, and a mod maker – on how Stardew Valley impacted them. And we've interspersed those with testimonials from fans whose experiences with Stardew Valley have helped them overcome personal challenges, work through grief, and connect with loved ones.
Responses have been very lightly edited for length and clarity.
"Over the past 10 years [my wife and I] have played [Stardew Valley] off and on, on our own farms and together once co-op released, and we always come back for more. We're sitting on well over 1,000 hours of combined playtime. We love everything about the game – the music, the characters, all of the creatures and animals and crops, and most of all the story. There is so much heart and reality packed into this game. For my wife and I it's what we turn to for comfort, for joy, and for nostalgia... I have bought this game as a gift at least a dozen times, and will continue to do so. We have played together four-player with my best friend and his wife and we're all nearing 40. I have given it to coworkers and friends and family. We have the cookbook and the board game and a dozen shirts. Stardew Valley is so important to us." -u/SPECPOL
"It's a comfort I can always fall back on during hard times. On tough days I boot up my saved game, and fish, farm, or spend countless hours decorating until I feel better (and it always works)." -u/WildMoonChild0129
"It was the first video game that I felt I could wholeheartedly share with my young children. Even though it has some adult storylines in it, I knew they would go completely over their heads. We played together in the living room, everyone on their own device, but chatting all the while about how our melons were coming in or how annoying Clint was being. I named all of my chickens after my daughter’s classmates, and all of my cows after my son’s. It faded after a while, but came back with a roar after we took ourselves to Symphony of the Seasons when it came through town last year. They are teenagers now. We all started playing again and doing three-part harmonies around the house of the best songs. (I like to do the baselines: bleep blop- bleep bleep blop.) It’s our special fun thing. None of their friends are into it and they usually tell me that they can’t imagine sharing it with anyone besides us." -u/Sad_Hovercraft_1367
"It's basically what has kept me sane throughout cancer treatment! I feel like ConcernedApe is part of my medical team at this point
"I was diagnosed with very aggressive but treatable cancer last February and have been through brutal chemo, countless hospitalisations, two major and four minor surgeries, and am currently in round 11 of 16 of immunotherapy... I had to take nearly five months off work (back part time now!) so I spent a lot of time in bed playing Stardew!
"I have nearly 2,000 hours in the game and through my treatment I have done loads of little challenge runs. I'm currently on farm number four of my colour run challenge — based on the dye pot colours, I can only sell items which are red/orange/yellow/green/blue/purple and my goal is to make 1 million gold and decorate the farm in the colour theme.
"I have been living in a hellish time of my life the last year but my farmer lives safely and happily in the Valley and it gives me strength." -u/RedTheWolf
Malblueeyes
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Malblueeyes suddenly found herself with a lot of extra time on her hands. Her job had been deemed inessential, and she was out of work.
With her free time, she turned to Stardew Valley. Her husband saw her playing more, and suggested she try streaming it. At first, Malblueeyes wasn't so sure she wanted to. But then one day, she just went live. She didn't even tell him she was doing it.
"This was never a thing that was planned," she says. "It was a thing that at the time I needed something to make me feel like I had a purpose."
Malblueeyes had loved Stardew for years, having played since 2017. It was very different from anything she'd played prior, and was her first true resource management/sim game.
"There were just so many moments where I was just sitting back going, 'My God, I'm having a lot of fun and I'm not terrified.' And so, I just, how could you not love a game that is as difficult as you make it?"
On stream, Malblueeyes started just playing casually. Later, to focus her streams a bit more, she began to do "Challenge Farms," or farms where you try to achieve certain goals under very limited conditions, such as only growing one crop or only raising animals. She began to pick up a following on Twitch. While a lot of her audience just seemed to be there for good vibes, she says that a large number of people were first-time players, asking questions on how she was accomplishing certain things in-game.
"If you're a Twitch streamer, you feel that pressure to know stuff," she says. "And I figured out very quickly, even with the 1,200 hours of Stardew I had on my Xbox, that there was a lot to Stardew I didn't know. And so, I started developing these challenge farms that would force me to confront aspects of Stardew that I was otherwise unfamiliar with or just didn't really interact with unless I had to. So, like unlocking the Joja Warehouse, that's become a staple in my challenge farms because I had never done it before and shockingly enough, a lot of Stardew players don't, they refuse. And so, one of the best ways I've discovered is to allow people to vicariously experience that through my challenge farms. They don't have to unlock Joja, but they can at least see what it's like to unlock Joja."
One of Malblueeyes' first challenge farms was called "Floja," where she unlocked Joja only raising money by growing flowers — an activity she hadn't really engaged with in Stardew Valley before. She had a great time, and kept doing different challenge runs. Until one day, she was struck with a different idea.
Oh, it was so bad. It was awful. But at that time, it was like the coolest thing I had ever done.
"I was sitting and I was watching one of my friends streaming one night trying to think of challenge farms and it was somebody's birthday in her chat and I was just tootling around and I thought, 'Oh, you know what would be fun? Making a happy birthday farm, that would be fun to make a happy birthday farm.' So anytime someone's in chat and they say it's your birthday, it's my birthday. You just go on the farm and you have a little party set up. And then I thought, 'Okay, but what other than just a table and flowers, what's really going to set this farm apart?' And that's when I thought of the flute blocks. That's how that started."
Stardew Valley includes "Flute Blocks," blocks that are placeable out in the world that play a selected note when a character walks past them. By combining strings of these, players can design little melodies that will play as they walk. Malblueeyes wanted to make one of these for the Happy Birthday song, but she self-admittedly isn't a musician. She can read music, but can't identify notes by ear. So she went hunting for assistance online, trying to figure out what note she should even start on. It was then that she discovered Music Farms: farms dedicated solely to playing elaborate tunes by walking through flute block mazes that often span the entire map.
"I took the happy birthday farm and I balled it up and I threw it away, because who wants Happy Birthday when I can do something even bigger? And I spent 12 hours doing He's a Pirate. That was my very first music farm was He's a Pirate from the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack and I was so proud of it. And when I look back on it now, oh, it was terrible. Oh, it was so bad. It was awful. But at that time, it was like the coolest thing I had ever done."
With some encouragement from friends, Malblueeyes showed the Music Farm to her audience, and everyone loved it. So she started making more. As she improved her skills, she eventually opened up a channel point redemption incentive so her audience members could request songs, and was quickly hit with numerous requests for all sorts of complex songs.
"And I would figure out a way to do it," she says. "I would always tell people, 'Give me a week.' Nah, I would sit there for hours after stream and figure it out and make it work. And then the very next stream I would be like, 'Your farm's done. It's done. Let's watch it together.' And people just loved it and I loved it. And I had never felt so vital before in a community."
Malblueeyes took a break from Twitch for nearly two years, during which time she was still making music farms and posting them on TikTok. She couldn't help herself. She started streaming again back in November, and while the break was much-needed, she's glad to be back in the community.
"It makes me happy to make other people happy," she says. "And I don't think that there's anything I've ever done that has ever made people as happy as when they request a music farm and I make it for them. People just, they love it and I love it."
"Got me through the stress and isolation of covid. It's fun to see how high I can get my sales at the end of each year while clearing my mind. Great game." -u/onebluephish1981
"It helped me through grieving both of our dogs who we lost within a year of each other." -u/spookychick12
"Stardew came out right before I graduated high school. At the time, I felt overwhelmed by the weight of deciding what to do with my future. I didn't get into my dream program at my dream school, but I did get into a great school and needed to pick a major soon. I was constantly reminded that childhood was about to end, and what happened next could affect the rest of my life.
"Then, I found this cute farming game that reminded me of the hours I spent on Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, and for the first time, I wasn't worried about my future. I was worried about having the right items prepared for the community center, or guessing which gifts would make my villager friends happy. Then, I read about ConcernedApe's story and how he too began this chapter with a door closed... and he chose to open a window. That set me on a path to pursue game development on my own, and I fell in love with it. There's something so special about this art form; creating your own worlds where other people can relax, challenge themselves, or just escape. I didn't think any of it was possible until I played the absolute labor of love that Stardew is.
"It's still a big part of my life; I've gotten all of my friends into it, included the main overture in my wedding, have seen both of the concerts, and even got to meet the big man himself in New York. I made sure to thank him for the impact he's had on my life as well as plenty of other farmers out there." -u/TinyBoatDev
"When I started playing, I was in college. I had just met my partner. Now we're grown ass adults with a house and a 1.5 year old son. I can't wait until our son is old enough and we can play with him!
"Actually, confession: I already made a save for the baby on my Switch because he's always trying to press buttons while I play. So far he hasn't made it past the first day because all he does is walk in circles, open the pause menu, and attempt to throw away his tools. But when he's ready, it'll be there for him!" -u/pyramidheadlove
Lichatton
Lichatton, a Stardew Valley streamer, speedrunner, and world record holder, did not start out playing the game with any great ambitions. She never even intended to be a streamer when she first went live one New Year's, just as the clock ticked into 2021.
It was thanks to the recommendation of a streamer friend that she was inspired to try streaming for the first time, playing Stardew Valley's new-at-the-time 1.5 update. Lichatton had already played Stardew Valley before and even had a file on Year 8, but describes herself at the time as more into League of Legends. Her streams managed to attract a few viewers, and one day, some speedrunners showed up in her stream and suggested she give that a shot. So Lichatton rushed to complete a fish bundle, and loved it so much she started running regularly.
Now, Lichatton is the world record holder for reaching Level 50 in the Mines, has over 15,000 Twitch subscribers, and over 8,000 hours in Stardew Valley itself.
I came back upstairs and I looked at him and I'm like, 'I just got a world record off-stream. Do you think people will be mad at me?'
"I told my husband, I'm like, 'I just need a break. Can you watch the baby? I'm going to go speedrun,'" Lichatton tells me. "And then I came back upstairs and I looked at him and I'm like, 'I just got a world record off-stream. Do you think people will be mad at me?'"
No one was mad at her. Lichatton says that the community that has formed around Stardew Valley is one of the best things about the game. She's found it especially friendly toward women in a way that other online gaming communities are not, and in speedrunning especially she's seen an increase in the number of women on the leaderboards in recent years.
"Stardew Valley is a very supportive community. I haven't ever had trolls on Twitch or anything like that, because my community usually bashes them. But they talk to each other's communities, so like all of my friends are Haboo's [another record-holding Stardew Valley speedrunner] friends or other people's friends and it's kind of like people bounce around from one place to another."
Speedrunning Stardew Valley has changed over the years, particularly with major patch updates, Lichatton explains. Patch 1.6 especially shook things up due to all the content that was added. "I'll give you an example," she says, offering one that admittedly may not make sense if you haven't played Stardew Valley yet but which should click immediately for avid players. "Community Center, before you needed to do a house upgrade for 10,000 gold and 450 wood to be able to get two of the items for one of the bundles, and now you don't need to upgrade your house. So that changes things quite a bit because you need less money.
"Even the mining has changed a lot, which is kind of where the grinding came from. Because before you would run on previous patches, but then we discovered that you can get a club on level five. So the enemies that you kill give you a chance at a ladder, so that kind of changed everything up and shook it up."
Now, Lichatton is working on what she describes as a "randomizer" of Stardew made by a friend of hers. You choose a letter of the alphabet, and the randomizer gives you an item in the game, and you play to see how fast you can acquire that item in a new file. "We're almost at the end of it. We're on Z. So for Z, she did Zuzu City Express, which is a poster you can get from the crane game in the movie theater."
Future ambitions for Lichatton include working on her times for reaching the 120th level of the Mines. She also wants to eventually do a modded playthrough of the game, as she's never played with mods before despite all the hours she's sunk in.
"I think the coolest thing I've been able to do because of this game is, my husband and I got to be on [Summer Games Done Quick] a couple of years ago, and that was a very, very rewarding experience."
Stardew Valley and speedruns of it have changed Lichatton's day-to-day life significantly. She now has a massive audience, new goals to reach, new friends, and a following she never imagined. But while she loves both speedrunning and streaming, she also just loves Stardew for what it is.
"Stardew is just one of those games that always got me through difficult days," she says. "You can have a bad day at work and go home and you're just going to be in a happy Stardew world where you can farm, you can do whatever you want, you can just hang out. It's just one of those games that's always been a part of my life and it's very, very special to me."
"I’ve been playing for a little under two years, but it’s my favourite game in the world. I do go through ruts where I won’t play for a month, then nonstop for hours everyday. I love decorating my house and farm, dating Haley, memorizing everyone’s loved gifts, all while keeping track in a meticulous spreadsheet. It’s also nice to love something that was made by a good person, ConcernedApe has created an incredible game that I will forever rave about." -u/ks_wizard
"I started the game eight years ago over the holidays after my stepfather suddenly died and was in this weird limbo. I don't remember how far I progressed in my farm that week but it was the calm, relaxing vibe I needed to not think about real life. I'd played Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons so I would have played it eventually but it holds a special place in my heart to help bring calm structure and comfort I needed that week.
"I've made several farms since then but I'm currently back on that first farm save trying for my first perfection.
"To me this game is cozy perfection I will forever return to. I will never repay [ConcernedApe] the mental stability and entertainment he's given me for only $15. (Technically more as I've gotten it on every platform I own to try to throw more money at him)." -u/get_hi_on_life
"As someone who has struggled with addiction and some extreme life lows, Stardew has been a very wholesome escape for me. It was a pleasant distraction during recovery or anytime I felt like achieving a small goal in the game. The music was always calming and serene, and I really like what ConcernedApe has had to say about the roots of the game's creation and the meaning it gives to people around the world." -u/wikkineaver
"It brought my bride and I closer together.
"She started playing it at the suggestion of our children. One night I surprised her. I bought the game, created my person, and joined her online game that she had created for our kids to join her. When she realized it was me, she was quite shocked to say the least. Cozy games are not really my thing, but now after more than a year we've reached perfection once, started a couple more farms, and tried out some Palia. She and I playing cozy games together has kind of become a nightly ritual." -u/PiperDon
"It was the first thing I felt like I could enjoy after becoming a mother for the first time. I struggled deeply after having my first baby. Looking back it was probably [post-partum depression], but at the time I didn’t know what was wrong with me. My husband finally convinced me to download this game and it was something that brought me joy in hard times. Even now, after five years of playing the game, I still play it often. When I’m not playing the game, I’m probably watching Stardew Valley related content on YouTube. I just recently hit perfect about a week ago after five years of playing and I may have cried a little. This game will always be special to me." -u/phyrgianhalfcad
Devin Hedegaard
Devin Hedegaard went to school for accounting… only to end up making one of the most popular Stardew Valley mods ever, and eventually, working on Stardew Valley itself.
Hedegaard, aka FlashShifter, had absolutely no actual experience modding when he first started on Stardew Valley Expanded. He tells me he used to mess around in Photoshop making avatars and forum signatures, and he had made custom maps in Advance Wars and StarCraft. He started playing Stardew when it came out in 2016, but it wasn't until he was laid off during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that he discovered its modding community.
At the time, he says, there were only about 800 or 900 available mods for the game, in contrast to the more than 28,000 now available on Nexus Mods. Hedegaard downloaded a bunch of them, and loved them so much that he started teaching himself how to make his own. He learned how to program, make pixel art, compose music, and create maps. All of this eventually led to Stardew Valley Expanded, a massive expansion for Stardew Valley that adds "28 new NPCs, 58 locations, 278 character events, 43 fish, reimagined vanilla areas, three farm maps, a reimagined world map reflecting all changes, new music, questlines, objects, crops, festivals, and many miscellaneous additions."
Why expand the already expansive Stardew Valley?
"Well, the way I looked at it is, Stardew Valley is already perfect the way it is. You don't need mods to enjoy Stardew Valley. I fell in love with version 1.2 of Stardew Valley, and that's just all Eric [Barone, creator]. That's entirely just Eric's work there, all himself, and you see what the game did to me. It made me want to make a huge mod for it, but when it came to me wanting to expand the valley, the way I went about it is I just wanted more of everything in the game. I wanted more NPCs, I wanted more locations, I wanted more crops, I wanted more character events, I wanted more machines, more items, more quests, more of everything. You can think of my mod as a well-rounded meal with all the meat and potatoes and green beans and maybe a cocktail on the side. It's the full show, a full meal of everything. There are some mods that just focus on some potatoes, there were some mods that just focused on some meat. A lot of work that goes into that, but I was fueled by my love for the game, my love for the community, and I had a lot of determination and a lot of excitement about the game in general that just fueled my desire to add everything that I did over all these years."
Stardew Valley Expanded first released in 2019, and at the time included three dozen new character events, three new locations, redesigned some base game maps. Hedegaard was going to stop there, but the mod started to blow up. It became so popular, he didn't want to leave it there. So he made it even bigger. He was in the process of working on version 1.15 of the mod, when his life was suddenly upended.
"My car got stolen and I was screwed, because I didn't have theft insurance on it and I was in a hole, and not to mention I had all my student loans I had to pay off still," Hedegaard explains. "I'm just like, 'What am I going to do?' I was modding full time, but modding full time, I was making a bit of money from it, but it's enough money to pay for food and rent, not pay for my student loans and pay for a new car. I like Christmas, I like buying Christmas gifts for my family and friends. It's like, 'What am I going to do? What am I going to do?'"
It was then that Hedegaard did something astonishing. He reached out to Barone, and asked him for a job.
"I was just like, 'You miss every shot you don't take.' So I went to the office and it was like, 'Yeah, do you want to hire me?'"
I was just like, 'You miss every shot you don't take.' So I went to the office and it was like, 'Yeah, do you want to hire me?'
This isn't quite as crazy as it sounds. Hedegaard did already know Barone – they had hung out 3-4 times before, he says, describing them at that point as "acquaintances." They also both lived in the Seattle area, so it's not like he flew across the country to do this.
Even more shocking was that Barone entertained the idea. He told Hedegaard that he'd have to think about it. Then, just a few days later, Hedegaard received a job offer.
"I remember that day fondly, it was one of the best days of my life," he says. "At that moment, my life changed. My life had already changed when I had first started playing Stardew Valley, it had changed when I had first released my mod, and then the other time it changed was when Eric hired me that day."
That's how Hedegaard came to be employed by ConcernedApe, LLC and working on the next update to Stardew Valley. Hedegaard was also able to complete version 1.15 of Stardew Valley Expanded, which he considered a "finished" product. He's still providing bug fixes to the mod as needed, and is planning on updating the mod to be compatible with the future 1.7 update when it lands.
But other than that, he's fully devoted to Stardew Valley itself now. The game, its creator, and the job that he now holds and loves have transformed his life in the best possible way, he says.
"I think that this is what I was born to do, it's like my fate or my destiny," he says. "I wasn't meant to be an accountant working at Joja Corp, going in with a suit and tie in downtown Seattle, because I was really starting to feel like… I'd go home and I'm like, 'I don't want to do this anymore. I wish I would get a letter from Grandpa,' and you know what? Eric gave me that letter from Grandpa. And it changed my life. His game, what he made, working for him, working with this team, everything that Stardew Valley has given to me has improved my life so much and it's made me so happy. Part of my development process is I just want to give all that love and happiness back to the community and to the world and to keep creating… I like seeing people be happy, I like seeing people playing this game, seeing people come together.
"...I feel like, as time goes on, more and more and more people will play. Heck, even 20 years from now, there will be even more millions of people who have discovered the game. What's crazy is Stardew Valley is 10 years old. In year one, year two, some people had kids, they had babies, and eight years later, their kids are now playing Stardew Valley. The next generation of players are playing Stardew Valley. It's crazy. Eric and I and the whole team, we deeply understand how much Stardew Valley means to people, and that's why we always want to do right by the community at every turn, every possibility. And like I've been saying, to give all that love and happiness back that we've gotten."
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
This month, we're celebrating Stardew Valley ahead of its 10th anniversary, and have a ton of Stardew-related pieces as a part of that. But when we spoke to creator Eric Barone (ConcernedApe) ahead of that celebration, we couldn't help but also ask about his other game that's still in-development and mysterious: Haunted Chocolatier.
Barone has been candid in the past that he's had trouble balancing work on both Stardew Valley's ongoing updates (with Patch 1.7 currently in progress) and Haunted Chocolatier. We started by asking him if that balance has changed recently and if he's had more Chocolatier-time in his schedule. The answer from Barone is, yes, sort of.
"Well, part of the reason why I've expanded my team a little bit is so that hopefully I can spend more time working on Haunted Chocolatier," he says. "And it's worked out pretty well so far, I would say. On 1.7, the approach we're taking is that I am like, you might say the creative director and I'm involved with like, 'Okay, here's what we're going to do. Here's some of the ideas.' Then I let the team work on that. And then meanwhile, I'm working on Haunted Chocolatier.
"At some point in 1.7's cycle, I will get heavily involved, because I feel like my hand needs to touch every part of the game, every aspect of the update. I need to go over it and adjust it or at least approve everything. So it will require a lot of my time anyway, but I think the balance has been a little bit more shifted, so that I can spend more time focused on Haunted Chocolatier. And I think it's been working out pretty good. That's been a big change from the 1.3 update or 1.1 or something where it's completely me. I had no time to work on a new game. So that has changed.
"It is difficult because it's hard to shift gears, I guess. If I'm thinking about Haunted Chocolatier, it's difficult to be like, 'Okay, I'm going to one day of the week or two days of the week work on Stardew Valley.' That's not how my brain works. I'm all in one thing or the other. So I've been trying to work on that. I feel like it requires a lot of discipline, which I'm always working to improve on."
Understandable, and there's even more context on the work he's done to balance Haunted Chocolatier and Stardew Valley at multiple other points in our full Q&A. But we couldn't let the subject drop without just straight-up asking him how Haunted Chocolatier is going. Sadly, no concrete updates today. But Barone replies that it's "coming along." But it sounds like the wait will be worth it.
"The progress isn't as fast as I would like. Nothing is ever as fast as I would like. The main important thing about Haunted Chocolatier is I'm not going to release anything that I'm not happy with. If I don't think it's a great game, I'm not going to release it. So even if that takes years and years, so be it. That's just what I want to do. Fortunately, I don't feel like there's any real pressure. I haven't received funding from anyone or crowdfunding. There's not going to be any pre-orders.
"I don't actually owe anyone the game. It's like when I want to do it and when I want to release it, it'll get done. I mean, it's true that I've announced the game, that does create a lot of pressure on me because I do feel like I don't want to disappoint the fans by taking too long, but there's no real physical obligation with it. It's more just mental constructs, you might say."
It makes sense that Haunted Chocolatier is taking a while, as Barone has previously said its world is "larger" than Stardew Valley's. He also took a bit of a hiatus on the game back in 2024 due to struggles getting Stardew Valley 1.6's console ports working. But it sounds like a bigger team is helping alleviate some of those struggles going forward. We'll just have to keep being patient (and keep enjoying Stardew) while we wait for Barone's next work, whenever it comes.
Stardew Valley is 10 years old this month: happy 10th birthday, Stardew! The beloved farming sim is still as popular as ever, with nearly 50 million copies sold and tens of thousands of players every single day. So why hasn't it ever had a TV or film adaptation?
It's a fair question, right? Video game TV and film adaptations have become wildly popular in recent years, and are finally seeing widespread success with shows like The Last of Us and Fallout and films like Sonic the Hedgehog (and sequels), Detective Pikachu, A Minecraft Movie, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Stardew is widely loved and seems like it'd be easy enough to adapt, especially into some kind of series about Pelican Town and its inhabitants. So where is it?
Speaking to game creator Eric Barone (ConcernedApe) ahead of and in honor of the 10th anniversary, I asked him if he'd ever been approached to do a movie or TV adaptation of Stardew Valley. Unshockingly, he told me he had been approached; "many times," as a matter of fact. So why didn't he ever agree to have one made?
"I think the main reason is that I would be worried that I wouldn't be happy with the final result. Stardew Valley is very much about the characters and the world and the tone of the game. So to take those characters, which, they don't have voices in the game. You have to use your imagination a bit to fill in the gaps, which I think makes the game more personal to every player. They're filling in the gaps. If it becomes a movie or a TV show, suddenly those gaps are all filled for you.
"One example I'll use is Harry Potter. When I read the books, I had my own idea of what Harry looked like, what Ron looked like and everything. Then you see the movies. I can't remember what my own idea was anymore. It's all just now what the movies are. Same with Lord of the Rings or any of these IPs. With Stardew Valley, I'm a little bit wary of taking that step because I feel like it might- I care about Stardew Valley so much that I don't- Even though it would be cool to see Stardew Valley on the silver screen and drive by a movie theater and see Stardew Valley on the marquee, that would be cool, but it's like, 'Is it really the best for Stardew Valley?' I guess that's my worry.
"And I could potentially imagine it being cool. That's why I said once, that if David Lynch had wanted to make a Stardew Valley movie in the style of Twin Peaks or something, I would've been like, 'Yeah, great. You can do whatever you want, Mr. Lynch.' Honestly, I would've let him just do whatever. I think it would've been great. Especially if it's like this mainstream Hollywood Stardew Valley. It's like, 'Is this really the heart and soul of what Stardew Valley is about?' And I'm sure someone could do a great job, but it feels like it's a bit of a roll of the dice."
Barone hasn't been shy about his love for Lynch in past interviews, so earlier in the interview I asked him to talk a bit more about what he admired about the late filmmaker's work and its influence on him, especially given Lynch passed away last year. Here's what Barone had to say:
"I feel like David Lynch, he was... He just had a transcendental understanding of the world. And you could see it in his art. I never met the man, and unfortunately I never knew him, but I felt like in his art, I always felt a connection. There's something about David Lynch, he's connected to the spiritual world it almost feels like and that always appealed to me. And another thing I really admired about him is that he never seemed to really try to be popular. He always seemed to be authentic to himself and his artistic vision, for better or for worse, in terms of popularity.
"Twin Peaks season two was very abrasive. Not a lot of people, I think, would necessarily enjoy it, but I felt like David Lynch was just being true to himself and he didn't care about whether this was going to be a commercial success. He just stuck to his guns and I really admire that. I just think that in general, the world needs more artists who are pure and not necessarily trying to be popular. That's the stuff that I like best is when, you might call it Outsider Art almost, because it's just a random person's unique vision. And I feel like everyone has this capacity, but a lot of people will instead be influenced by what's popular or what might be successful.
I just think that in general, the world needs more artists who are pure and not necessarily trying to be popular.
"And I would just hope that people would instead just stick to their true vision. I want to see everyone's unique perspective and vision. And David Lynch was the ultimate form of that, in my opinion. And I just liked his stuff. I mean, I loved Eraserhead, Twin Peaks, The Straight Story. Again, even in The Straight Story, which was not very avant-garde, it was his most wholesome, straightforward movie, but you could kind of still feel the David Lynch essence in it. And I always love that when you can just tell this is a certain artist's thing. No matter what they do, they just have this unique flare that you can always pick up on."
Stardew Valley's upcoming 1.7 update will include, among other things, two brand new marriage candidates, IGN can exclusively reveal.
This comes from our interview with the game's creator, Eric Barone (ConcernedApe) in celebration of Stardew Valley's 10th anniversary. When we asked him for updates on 1.7, Barone said the following:
I'm trying to not reveal too much because I like for it to be a surprise. What I will say without maybe being too specific is that with this update, one of the things we're trying to do is... Well, there is a popular fan request, which has to do with the children, trying to make the children a little more interesting. So I'm trying to do something with that, but there's a lot of other things in the update as well that no one's really asked for, but I think people will appreciate it.
I'm going to be adding two more marriage candidates, but I'll reveal who it is on the anniversary day.
This is, quite frankly, huge! Players have been asking for more romanceable characters for years now, and the only new additions since the game's launch were Shane and Emily, added way, way back in 1.1. We don't yet know who these two mystery partners will be, though. It's possible that ConcernedApe is adding two brand new characters to the game, but it's also possible that existing characters that players have wanted to marry for a long time will finally get their due. I'm thinking of folks like Marnie, Sandy, Linus, Clint, or even the elusive Wizard. There's also a contingent of folks who want to break up Robin and Demetrius, but that seems like it would cause some drama, to say the least.
Whoever it is, we know they'll get additional scenes for heart events, lots of new relationship-focused dialogue, and their own unique area on the farm. So whether these are new or old characters, we're sure to see some cool new story content surrounding them.
It's almost Stardew Valley's 10th birthday, which emans that for a decade players have combed over every inch of Pelican Town and the surrounding area, unearthing secrets, deciphering Dwarvish manuscripts, and putting Strange Buns in hidden boxes. But the game's creator, Eric Barone (ConcernedApe), says there's still one secret that fans have never found, though he hopes one day they do.
We spoke to ConcernedApe for a big interview in honor of the game's 10th anniversary, and among the many topics we discussed was the question of in-game secrets. ConcernedApe has said in the past that there was still an outstanding secret, so we wanted to check in and see if that was still true. And, yup, it is, though maybe his cheeky teasing will help someone find it now. Here's exactly what he said:
There's still a secret that no one has ever found. I don't think they ever will. Maybe I'll reveal it someday, but the problem with the secret is that it's, it's basically a secret message that's in the game and it reveals something that actually isn't even true anymore. It was revealing a thing about- Do I want to reveal it or not? Well, that's all I'll say. I'll say it was a secret message that was basically announcing something that I actually shifted gears and that thing wasn't even true anymore, but it's still in the game. I just don't know if anyone will ever discover it because it's so obscure.
I followed up by marveling at this knowledge, as the game has been combed over and datamined all to heck over the years. However, ConcernedApe replied that "there's certain ways to hide messages that can't really be datamined. If you hide something in the code, it's going to all be found because people decompile the code and look at everything. If you say hide it in the art or something, if it's a secret message that's hidden in the artwork somehow, then people can't really discover that as easily. They have to see it."
Could that be a clue as to what this is? Possibly! Get to work, secret hunters. ConcernedApe concluded by saying he doesn't think anyone will find it, but hopes that someone does.
The popular life/farming simulator made waves when it first dropped on February 26, 2016 on PC, quickly becoming beloved for its loving recreation of some of the best aspects of the old Harvest Moon games, while also determinedly following its own path with elements such as the mines, a much wider variety of crops and animals, and queer relationships.
Over the last 10 years, a series of updates have kept the energy alive, adding even more farming activities, more people to marry and befriend, more dungeoning adventures, more seasonal events, and just... more. Of everything. It remains wildly popular as a result, having sold nearly 50 million copies since its initial launch and still drawing hundreds of thousands of players on a daily basis on Steam alone, not to mention all the other platforms it's come out on.
Stardew is consistently among the most-played games on Steam, and retains a massive community of players, content creators, modders, and other artists all participating in its fandom. We re-reviewed it in 2024 and gave it a 10/10. There's a cookbook. And a symphony tour. My most normie, non-video game friends have played it. It's everywhere. And it's somehow not done. A planned 1.7 update is still in the works and (as you'll soon see) it seems unlikely creator Eric Barone (ConcernedApe) will be able to put the game away even after that.
The story of Stardew Valley's creation has been told and retold across numerous articles and interviews, so in celebration of its 10th anniversary, we took a different approach. We sat down with Barone for a lengthy interview not about the game's beginnings, but about its journey over the last 10 years, and its future. You can read some shorter highlights in our stories about new marriage candidates coming in 1.7, why there isn't a Stardew Valley TV show, the secret no one's found yet, and how Haunted Chocolatier, Barone's next game, is doing. We also spoke to a handful of Stardew Valley fans and creators about what the game has meant to them over the years, and you can read that here.
But for the fans who want everything, as we did, we've republished the full Q&A with Barone here, lightly edited for clarity:
IGN: Well, let's start off easy. You're about to enter year 10 of Stardew Valley. How do you feel?
Eric Barone: That's right. It's been so long. I just can't believe that 10 years has gone past. It was a blur, I would say. And it's 10 years since launch, but it's been almost 15 years since I started working on Stardew Valley. So for me, the majority of my adult life now has been basically dedicated to Stardew Valley. This is my entire life. So it's hard to even be objective about it, to be honest.
I've been blown away by how popular Stardew Valley is, how many people have played it, how it continues to be popular 10 years after launch. I think that's a crazy thing. It's not something I would've ever expected, but the amount of love for the game is one of the reasons I've continued to work on it for so long. It's difficult to stay locked into one project for 15 years. I definitely have urges to work on other things, but then Stardew Valley keeps drawing me back in, really just because there's so many people who love the game.
You've talked a lot about the development of the game in the past and that process. So I don't want to make you retell that story. But in these 10 years since it's released, I'm curious about your evolution as a developer. You've been working on this game for far longer than that, but what do you think are the biggest changes you've undergone as a game developer since Stardew Valley released?
Barone: I think the biggest thing was transitioning to working with other people. When Stardew Valley first came out in 2016, I literally did not work with anyone, not a soul. It was entirely my own project and I did everything. Since then, now I have a pretty good-sized team of people helping me with the updates and with the business side of things. Really with everything, managing the forums and all that stuff. So that's been a big change. I wasn't used to it. It took me a while to get used to working with other people.
I mean, it's been really great with my team that I have now. They do great work. They add their own unique sensibilities and ideas to the melting pot of Stardew Valley. There's just so many things that I couldn't have done on my own. For example, translating it into 12 different languages, adding multiplayer. There's some technical things that are just beyond my skill level. I'm a very amateur developer. I still feel that way. I'm just a total amateur. It's good to have some people who are more technically focused, for example, and can help me with some of those things. Really polish up the game, make sure it's running smoothly, that multiplayer works in a seamless way and all of that.
That's been the biggest thing is working with other people, but also just, I guess, getting used to the prominence of Stardew Valley. I think back to, I think it was September, I was at one of the Stardew Valley concert shows in LA and it was at this huge outdoor venue with 5,000 seats and it was sold out. It was this cool outdoor venue. I was standing there just looking at the audience and thinking, "This is crazy." I don't even know how to think about it. It's surreal, but I'm also used to it at this point, I guess. So I try not to take it too seriously, but it is surreal that this has all happened.
I do want to back up and poke at that a little bit because you said you still feel like an amateur. Are you just being deferential or do you really feel that you're still an amateur after working for 15 years?
Barone: No, I still definitely feel like an amateur.
Why?
Barone: I think it's because my approach to development is very scrappy. I've never really become super professional in the way I do things, but I think in a way it's part of what gives Stardew Valley and hopefully Haunted Chocolatier it's a, you might say indie soul, is that it's not too professional. There's a little bit of rough edges around it. Also, my mindset is that I never think of myself as a master of anything. Pixel art, I feel like I'm bad and I need to always get better. I feel that way about every aspect of the game. I'm not good enough. I need to improve.
To me, that's a helpful mindset because that inspires me to always want to strive to improve and not just think, "Yeah, I'm perfect. I don't need to do anything else." It's like I always need to be working to improve and get better at every aspect of development.
So in the 10 years since release, can you talk about a couple major moments in your life connected to Stardew Valley that stood out to you as really big or notable or joyful?
Barone: Well, I think the first one was just when the game launched, that was a very, I would say stressful day, but also just blew my mind that this was finally coming out, people were going to play it. I didn't have much time to really marinate in that feeling. I just had to lock in and start doing updates and everything. And that's been a blur ever since. When multiplayer came out, that was also a big deal. I think that really expanded the game and brought a lot more people into the game.
I guess another highlight would be the concert tours. The first time I was at one of these shows, these Stardew Valley shows, and it was 1,000 people in a room who were all mega-Stardew Valley fans, that made it sink in that there's a lot of real people that have been touched by Stardew Valley. Because a lot of my experience as a developer, from my perspective, I'm sitting here looking at a monitor all day. I'm seeing messages and things from real people, but there's a lack of a real physical human connection. So to actually bridge that gap and meet real players in the flesh and shake their hands, that was very touching.
It just reminded me of why I'm doing this. It's partly because I want to share my ideas with the world. What keeps me going after 10 years of still working on this. Because as an artist, I guess, I have a desire to just move on and do something else. I want to be always doing something new. Ideally, every month I'd be doing something totally new and different. Whatever whims I have.
There's so many people that say Stardew Valley changed my life or saved my life or helped me bond with my family members or all these things that makes me feel like there's a more important purpose that I have here than to just share my ideas. It's part of it, but I feel like a responsibility to all the players because I feel like I've been granted a very rare opportunity to be in this position. I have the capacity here to touch the lives of millions of people. That's a big responsibility and I want to do it as best I can and hopefully be a positive influence in people's lives in a real way, a real physical, real life way.
It's a heavy burden, then? The way you describe it.
Barone: Yeah, it is. Like I said, I just feel like I've been granted a special opportunity. This feels like it was my destiny and I just want to do the best I can to maximize that opportunity.
This might just be the same question, but I also wanted to ask if there's anything in the last 10 years that you can pinpoint as something that you're the most proud of, like an accomplishment, maybe not including the launch of the game?
Barone: I think the last update, the 1.6 update, I was pretty proud of that because it was a whole team effort. It felt like the apex of this transition from being a total solo developer to actually incorporating several different people and their ideas and their work all into a cohesive package. And I think it was very well received by the players as well. That was a fun moment. It was fun to be able to share that with my team and with the community. It felt like a little celebration when we launched it and then we're all working together. So it wasn't just me alone. For better or for worse, it's like if there was any stress, it was distributed among the team too, so that was helpful.
I'm sure you're aware of this, but you've been held up over the years as an example of a successful "solo developer." And you did make Stardew Valley largely by yourself with the support of family members and things like that, but it sounds like what you're saying now is you've discovered since release, is that it does take a village to keep it sustained. Do you have any thoughts about that?
Barone: It's true. People say, "No, it's just one developer." It's true and not true because it was true up to a point. I made a complete game that was successful completely by myself. So it does prove that it is possible to do that. There's so much that couldn't have happened post-launch without the help of other people. And I think that was crucial for making Stardew Valley as complete and as good as it is today. It's true. It's like both things are true, I would say. It just depends on how much you want to expand the game.
It's like the game became so popular that in order to meet the needs and demands of the player base, I feel like I did need to expand the team. There's been a lot of benefits of that. There's a certain thing where not every single thing in the game now is completely done by me, which does make it a little bit less of my personal baby, but I'm fine with that at this point. I feel like when it launched, it was like my baby that I was incubating and then it went out into the real world and Stardew Valley has become its own being that's external from me.
The best analogy would be, it feels like I was a parent and the child grew up and now it left the house and it's developed a life of its own that is beyond just me. And that's how I feel about Stardew Valley now. It's not my personal baby anymore. I'll always have a father connection to the game, but it's also become its own being. And that's not just me and the team, but also the entire Stardew Valley community and all the players, all the modders have really turned it into its own thing. So that's been, I guess, an evolution over the past 15 years as well.
So I asked you about big positive moments in the last 10 years. What about challenging times? Is there any moment in the last 10 years of Stardew that you recall as being exceptionally difficult or frustrating?
Barone: I think the hardest part is just staying totally high energy about it for 10 years. Like I've said, I've wanted to move on and work on other things and I've struggled with that and with thinking about, "What is my purpose? What is my life purpose? Is it going to be to just work on Stardew Valley forever, for the rest of my life?" That's been a little bit challenging. So I have to keep reminding myself of all the people that are affected by the updates and playing Stardew Valley to try to stay locked in for so long.
In terms of technical difficulties, it hasn't been too bad. There's been some issues and I've brought more people onto the team that have been able to help with that. It's true that managing a team and being the leader of a team is something that I wasn't really prepared for necessarily. I had to learn and grow in that regard too, but I just view it as one other aspect of being a game developer. There's a lot of things you don't think of. At first it's like, "Okay, I'm programming. I'm drawing pixel art, I'm making music." But then it's like, "Okay, I also have to have a public persona." I'm managing my social media, I'm doing business stuff, I'm doing taxes and all this stuff.
And then it's also, I'm managing a team. So there's so many different aspects to this, which have been a learning experience, I would say, but I'm trying to get better and try to always improve and increase my skills in that regard. And sometimes it's been difficult, but I think things have been getting better and better over the years.
You touched on this slightly earlier, but when you've been considering updates to Stardew over the last 10 years, how much of what you have done has been influenced by community requests or mods versus how much of it is just you coming up with stuff you think is cool?
Barone: Yeah, I mostly try to just do what I think is cool because I think that that will keep Stardew Valley, Stardew Valley. I don't want it to be developed by the public necessarily. It's like I do consider what people request and if it lines up with things that I agree with, then I might lean in that direction a little bit because I do want to make the players happy. But I think sometimes what will make the players happy is for Stardew Valley to still be my creative ideas ultimately, whether they realize it or not.
I try to do a mix, I guess. A few things that maybe the fans are asking for if it lines up, but then I also like to just do whatever. I mean, my favorite way to come up with ideas for the update is just play the game myself. And when I'm playing, I'm like, "Hmm, this would be cool." And then I'll just add it. I think that's always a crucial part of any new update is me playing the game. And usually what happens is, I or my team will work on the update for a while and then we'll play through some of the new stuff we've done. And then as we're playing through it, we're always thinking, "Oh. Okay, this would be cool to add." There's always things that come up.
My favorite thing to do is just whatever weird thing pops into my head, I'll just add that in. For example, 1.6, I added the family of raccoons that lives near your farm. That wasn't a player request. It was just something I had thought of and I was like, "This would be fun." I think those things are what gives Stardew Valley its authentic character.
Are there any particular mods or fan projects that you found super cool or super interesting or super inspiring?
Barone: I actually don't really play with mods, to be honest. I try not to look at mods too much because I actually don't want to be influenced by mods.
Yeah. That makes sense.
Barone: I know people think that I take ideas from mods, but it's probably just that there are natural ideas that make sense that would be added to the game. I end up adding those things, just because it naturally makes sense. Or maybe someone suggested it to me and it came from a mod, but I wasn't even aware that it came from a mod. I just thought, "Hey, that's a good idea."
Speaking of ideas, are there any updates on 1.7?
Barone: Yeah. I'm trying to not reveal too much because I like for it to be a surprise. What I will say without maybe being too specific is that with this update, one of the things we're trying to do is... Well, there is a popular fan request, which has to do with the children, trying to make the children a little more interesting. So I'm trying to do something with that, but there's a lot of other things in the update as well that no one's really asked for, but I think people will appreciate it.
I'm going to be adding two more marriage candidates, but I'll reveal who it is on the anniversary day.
This was a couple years ago, but I think you said there was still a secret or two that at the time fans hadn't yet found. Can we get an update on that? Is there anything in the game that people haven't seen?
Barone: There's still a secret that no one has ever found. I don't think they ever will. Maybe I'll reveal it someday, but the problem with the secret is that it's ... It's basically a secret message that's in the game and it reveals something that actually isn't even true anymore. It was revealing a thing about- Do I want to reveal it or not? Well, that's all I'll say. I'll say it was a secret message that was basically announcing something that I actually shifted gears and that thing wasn't even true anymore, but it's still in the game. I just don't know if anyone will ever discover it because it's so obscure.
It's really interesting that there is still something because, I mean, this game is on PC. It's been datamined all to heck. People have seen all the puzzle pieces of this game.
Barone: That's true. That's true. But the thing is, there's certain ways to hide messages that can't really be datamined. If you hide something in the code, it's going to all be found because people decompile the code and look at everything. If you say hide it in the art or something, if it's a secret message that's hidden in the artwork somehow, then people can't really discover that as easily. They have to see it.
This is going to drive people crazy. I'm going to write this and this is going to drive people crazy for months.
Barone: I feel like no one will ever find it, but I hope someone does. It'd be interesting.
So Stardew Valley in the last 10 years helped spark a new wave of, I guess we can call them cozy games in a similar tradition. Do you play any of those? What do you make of that trend?
Barone: I've played a few. The trend, I mean, I'm glad if Stardew Valley inspired people to make these games. The whole idea of cozy games, I feel like, I've never called Stardew Valley a cozy game. That's just a genre that formed, I guess, and people started calling it that and people started retroactively calling Stardew Valley a cozy game, which is fine. I don't really call it that, but I mean, I would say Stardew Valley is cozy. But a cozy game, I feel like there's certain aspects to this whole genre that have gone beyond or different than my conception, which is fine.
Well, it's not like Stardew Valley was the first. Harvest Moon obviously was the first farming game, the original so-called cozy game, but it's like if you're the first screamo band, you probably weren't calling your band a screamo band. It's just the music you made. And then people started calling it screamo, and then they retroactively call your band a screamo band. It's like, "Well, okay."
In terms of the genre itself, I think it's cool because I mean, the reason why I liked Harvest Moon was because it wasn't just about fighting and going on some big grand epic adventure. It was the opposite. Instead of going out on a huge adventure, you were at home, it was domestic. It was just one little area and just trying to go deep on that one area, which for some reason that just really appealed to me. I don't know why. Maybe I've always been a homebody, but I think that idea resonates with a lot of people. And maybe a lot of people that didn't classically like video games, but maybe because this whole thing where it's all about fighting and combat and competition and going on a big adventure, maybe that's not appealing to a lot of people. It's appealing to some, like a subset of the population, but Stardew Valley maybe brought this whole other idea. Which is part of the human experience, an important part of the human experience, and brought that to the mainstream in a way.
So people are like, "Hey, we could actually make games that are about cooking or running a household or running a small business." Things that are a lot more, I don't know. I guess I would call them domestic, but it doesn't really quite capture it because a lot of cozy games aren't just about being at home. They're just more, I would say, less about fighting and competition and they're more about the normal everyday things that people do.
There's a certain sense of growth in these games too. It's about acquiring resources and then developing those resources into something, a life that you want to live. And that's such a core part of being human that I think it just naturally appeals to people. It's like something we're all meant to do in a way.
When I was researching for this article, I saw that you had talked a lot for understandable reasons this year about how much you admire David Lynch. And I was wondering if you'd be willing to talk a little more specifically about what it is you love about him and how you feel he's influenced your work.
Barone: Yeah. I feel like David Lynch, he was... He just had a transcendental understanding of the world. And you could see it in his art. I never met the man, and unfortunately I never knew him, but I felt like in his art, I always felt a connection. There's something about David Lynch, he's connected to the spiritual world it almost feels like and that always appealed to me. And another thing I really admired about him is that he never seemed to really try to be popular. He always seemed to be authentic to himself and his artistic vision, for better or for worse, in terms of popularity.
Twin Peaks Season 2 was very abrasive. Not a lot of people, I think, would necessarily enjoy it, but I felt like David Lynch was just being true to himself and he didn't care about whether this was going to be a commercial success. He just stuck to his guns and I really admire that. I just think that in general, the world needs more artists who are pure and not necessarily trying to be popular. That's the stuff that I like best is when, you might call it Outsider Art almost, because it's just a random person's unique vision. And I feel like everyone has this capacity, but a lot of people will instead be influenced by what's popular or what might be successful.
And I would just hope that people would instead just stick to their true vision. I want to see everyone's unique perspective and vision. And David Lynch was the ultimate form of that, in my opinion. And I just liked his stuff. I mean, I loved Eraserhead, Twin Peaks, The Straight Story. Again, even in The Straight Story, which was not very avant-garde, it was his most wholesome, straightforward movie, but you could kind of still feel the David Lynch essence in it. And I always love that when you can just tell this is a certain artist's thing. No matter what they do, they just have this unique flare that you can always pick up on.
Are there any other people just across all different kinds of craft who have been big influences on you over the years?
Barone: I mean, I don't know about big influences. Obviously Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli has been pretty big. A lot of people have been influenced by that, me included. And I feel like he's [Miyazaki] another one of those artists who you can always feel the artist in whatever he does. There's just a certain thing and I really appreciate that. Obviously, Yasuhiro Wada, the Harvest Moon creator, has been a huge influence on me. You could say that he started it all. So I have to shout him out and point to him as the original farming game person. He made it all possible.
We've talked a little bit already about continually updating the game and why you feel it's so hard to step away from Stardew Valley and why you keep going back to it over and over. Do you see a future where it's ever done?
Barone: Yeah, I could see a future where it's done. Just to be realistic at this point, there's been many times where I was like, "All right, I think it's going to be done after this update." And then that never happens. So I think just realistically, it might not ever be done. I do want to release Haunted Chocolatier. I want to finish Haunted Chocolatier. That will require me to spend time working on Haunted Chocolatier. And it's like if I'm always working on Stardew Valley as well, it's going to probably take a long time. That's one worry I have.
Maybe if everyone stopped playing Stardew Valley, if it fell off, then maybe I wouldn't be as inspired to keep working on it. A big part of it is just because it's so popular. And like I mentioned earlier, it's like when there's so many people still playing it, I feel a responsibility and an inspiration to want to keep adding to the game because I just know that it's basically the best avenue for any ideas or any of my work to reach other people. And that's why I have always created things in my life is because, I guess I would say it's probably my way of connecting to the rest of humanity is through art or music. For me, it was always primarily music before Stardew Valley.
I created music and art and stuff always. Even I think if I was the last person alive on earth, I would do it because I want to get stuff out. I have ideas and I want to actualize those ideas. But I think in a way, it was also my way of trying to connect with the rest of humanity. So Stardew Valley has become by far the best avenue that I've ever had to do that. Before Stardew Valley, no one ever listened to my music or anything, which is fine.
As long as people are still playing it and it's still popular, I'll probably want to keep making updates for it. The only thing is, I don't want the game to become too bloated with content. I feel like at some point it might be too much actually. So I am very cautious about that. There's so many systems in the game now. I don't want to keep adding systems, but I do feel like all the things that exist could always be expanded upon more. Stardew Valley, as a game, you progress through these years in the game. Eventually things start looping.
So it's like there could always be a third year of festival variants, a fourth year of festival variants. There could be more dialogue. I could go deeper on all the characters. That's one of the things ... It's like why I'm not really too into adding new characters to the world because I feel like all the existing characters could use so much more depth and I could keep going deeper and deeper adding the third year of dialogue to everyone and adding more character cutscenes and all these things that open up as you keep playing the game.
Is there anything you've ever wanted to add to or change about Stardew Valley that for whatever reason you couldn't?
Barone: Well, I feel like some of the things are so established that it would be weird to change it now. There are some things that maybe I slightly regret. One thing I mentioned before was the spiral level in the mines. That level's awful.
It kinda sucks, yeah.
Barone: Yes, that level sucks. And I could maybe adjust it to make it suck a little bit less. I don't know about just taking it out completely because some of these things are part of- I guess I fear that if I retroactively change things in the game, it'll lose that classic Stardew Valley feel. Sometimes I wonder if some of these things that are slightly annoying do actually add to the game experience as a whole, because not everything in life is easy. There's got to be some things that are even annoying, I think sometimes, so that the things that are not annoying and are more comfy feel even comfier in comparison. I'm not sure about some of those things.
Well, one thing that I also, I wouldn't say regret, it was just that my skill level and understanding at the time was all the- For example, the New Desert Festival and the Winter Night Market, which are the two most recent festivals, they operate in a totally different way. They're not like an instance, where you're stuck on this map. You can come and go and it's very ambient. I really like that approach so much better, which I feel like is an evolution of the original idea I had with the festival.
I think it would be great maybe to retroactively turn all the festivals into that style, but that would be a huge change for the game. It might be controversial even because maybe some people like the instance festivals, I don't know. So I do sometimes struggle with like, "Should I change something and make it not classic Stardew Valley anymore, even if I think it's better or not?" So I struggle with that sometimes.
It is interesting because now this game is a decade old. There is a mystical "classic" Stardew Valley that people can remember that had much less and also had friction points that you maybe could have solved. You think back at the original Harvest Moon and it has that quality of, some things in that game were really frustrating, but that's what I remember fondly about them. So you might have reached that age.
Barone: True, true. I mean, maybe someday there'll be a Stardew Valley Classic.
Would you ever do it?
Barone: Maybe, maybe, but it'd be difficult because I feel like most of the updates have added meaningfully good things to the game. I think the game is better today than it was in 1.0. There was one thing I remember that I did change that was funny. When the game originally came out, when Grandpa came and evaluated your farm after two years, he was super harsh. It was really difficult and he was almost rude about it. He was like, "I should have bequeathed the farm to my other grandchild."
Oh, gosh.
Barone: And I don't think you could reevaluate either. So it was like, a lot of people were upset because they felt like it was contrary to the comfortable atmosphere of Stardew Valley. So I did adjust that. I made Grandpa a lot less harsh and I made it so that you could re-summon him at any time to reevaluate the farm. And I don't regret that. I think it was the right move. I don't know what I was thinking.
Has Stardew Valley ever surprised you?
Barone: I think so because, well, there's certain things that- It is a bit of a sandbox game a little bit. And so there's certain things that just happen that I didn't necessarily intend. One example is if you breed slimes in town, they'll speak to the villagers because the game treats- a slime and an NPC are both the same base entity in the game. They're just different offshoots of this base entity. And it was in that base entity in the code that I had this stuff where if one of these entities came close to a different one, they might have a chance of greeting them and saying something, which I put in because I thought it'd be fun if NPCs cross paths and they say hello to each other. But I never thought about the fact that slimes would talk.
That's one example. I thought that was funny, so it's still in the game. I didn't change that or anything. It added, I guess, a lore that I wouldn't have necessarily intended, which is that the slimes can talk, which is weird. There's some things like that in Stardew Valley where it's like, I almost view it as like, is this lore or is it just a funny, silly little thing?
It's like the Abigail eating amethysts thing.
Barone: Exactly. Yeah. That's another example of something that I didn't intend, but I left it in the game because these are the things where I would say it has an indie quirkiness to it where it's not exactly- If it was a totally professional operation, there would be QA testers that would've caught that and then they would've probably gotten rid of it because it's not intended behavior. But with Stardew Valley, it's like, "Eh, whatever. Just leave it in. It's fine." And there's a lot of stuff like that actually in the game.
Would you ever consider doing a Stardew Valley 2 instead of just continuing to update?
Barone: Yeah, I would. In fact, I would love to because it would just be fun to work on a whole new set of characters, a whole new world, maybe capture some of that original energy that I had back in 2012, when I started working with Stardew Valley. There's something fun about the number of possibilities in a whole new world, which I think would be fun for me. It'd be fun for my team. We'd be really excited about it. It's a bit difficult because people are so attached to Pelican Town and to the villagers in Pelican Town. I do fear a little bit that if it's a whole new cast of characters, people might feel put off by that.
I guess another approach to Stardew Valley 2 could be to use the existing cast, but it's like a new adventure in the world, but then I'm still stuck with the same thing. I'd have to think about that one. Yeah. There was a time where I was starting to work on a Stardew Valley 2, but, I don't know. For various reasons, I moved over to Haunted Chocolatier instead. Haunted Chocolatier you could say is like the Stardew Valley 2, but it's a bit different of a game, so we'll see.
A while back, you took a really uncommon step. You got a publisher and then later you removed that publisher and now you're publishing all the versions of Stardew Valley yourself. Are you happy with the results of that decision?
Barone: Yeah, I'm happy with that.
Yeah?
Barone: I'll just say that it's nice to be fully in charge of my own game. A lot of indie developers, well, I guess it begs the question of what is an indie developer? Was I an indie developer when I had a publisher? And that's obviously debatable, but I think an amateur developer, you might say, who created an IP would ultimately like to be fully in charge of their own IP. I mean, Stardew Valley always belonged to me as a intellectual property. It's just nice to be able to- It's all my decision now. If I want to do this or that or enter this market or make a port of the game, it's up to me. So I don't know. I just like doing that. I appreciate the help that I got from my publisher when they were helping me out.
So I have a question written in here that you've already kind of answered, which is, do you have any plans for the 10th anniversary? But I just want to ask that very directly. Is there anything else that I should mention here?
Barone: I don't think you need to mention anything, but I mean, I have some plans. I was thinking of maybe doing my own little retrospective video or something where I just have a message for the players and maybe go back through the timeline of all the different things that have happened during the last 15 years. Just to basically remind everyone of what all has transpired.
Some people are brand new to Stardew Valley. It's still selling a lot of copies every day. So those people may be brand new players. They might not know about the whole history of the game. I feel like it'd just be a good way to think back about everything that's happened. Just this whole grand adventure of Stardew Valley, the past 15 years.
Have you ever been approached to do a movie or a TV show for Stardew Valley?
Barone: Many times.
Why didn't it happen?
Barone: I think the main reason is that I would be worried that I wouldn't be happy with the final result. Stardew Valley is very much about the characters and the world and the tone of the game. So to take those characters, which, they don't have voices in the game. You have to use your imagination a bit to fill in the gaps, which I think makes the game more personal to every player. They're filling in the gaps. If it becomes a movie or a TV show, suddenly those gaps are all filled for you.
One example I'll use is Harry Potter. When I read the books, I had my own idea of what Harry looked like, what Ron looked like and everything. Then you see the movies. I can't remember what my own idea was anymore. It's all just now what the movies are. Same with Lord of the Rings or any of these IPs. With Stardew Valley, I'm a little bit wary of taking that step because I feel like it might- I care about Stardew Valley so much that I don't- Even though it would be cool to see Stardew Valley on the silver screen and drive by a movie theater and see Stardew Valley on the marquee, that would be cool, but it's like, "Is it really the best for Stardew Valley?" I guess that's my worry.
And I could potentially imagine it being cool. That's why I said once, that if David Lynch had wanted to make a Stardew Valley movie in the style of Twin Peaks or something, I would've been like, "Yeah, great. You can do whatever you want, Mr. Lynch." Honestly, I would've let him just do whatever. I think it would've been great. Especially if it's like this mainstream Hollywood Stardew Valley. It's like, "Is this really the heart and soul of what Stardew Valley is about?" And I'm sure someone could do a great job, but it feels like it's a bit of a roll of the dice.
You've said many times, including this interview, that you've had trouble balancing, doing updates to Stardew Valley with working on Haunted Chocolatier. Has that changed more recently? What's the balance in your life right now?
Barone: Well, part of the reason why I've expanded my team a little bit is so that hopefully I can spend more time working on Haunted Chocolatier. And it's worked out pretty well so far, I would say. On 1.7, the approach we're taking is that I am like, you might say the creative director and I'm involved with like, "Okay, here's what we're going to do. Here's some of the ideas." Then I let the team work on that. And then meanwhile, I'm working on Haunted Chocolatier.
At some point in 1.7's cycle, I will get heavily involved, because I feel like my hand needs to touch every part of the game, every aspect of the update. I need to go over it and adjust it or at least approve everything. So it will require a lot of my time anyway, but I think the balance has been a little bit more shifted, so that I can spend more time focused on Haunted Chocolatier. And I think it's been working out pretty good. That's been a big change from the 1.3 update or 1.1 or something where it's completely me. I had no time to work on a new game. So that has changed.
It is difficult because it's hard to shift gears, I guess. If I'm thinking about Haunted Chocolatier, it's difficult to be like, "Okay, I'm going to one day of the week or two days of the week work on Stardew Valley." That's not how my brain works. I'm all in one thing or the other. So I've been trying to work on that. I feel like it requires a lot of discipline, which I'm always working to improve on.
Any update on Haunted Chocolatier you want to share?
Barone: I would say it's coming along. The progress isn't as fast as I would like. Nothing is ever as fast as I would like. The main important thing about Haunted Chocolatier is I'm not going to release anything that I'm not happy with. If I don't think it's a great game, I'm not going to release it. So even if that takes years and years, so be it. That's just what I want to do. Fortunately, I don't feel like there's any real pressure. I haven't received funding from anyone or crowdfunding. There's not going to be any pre-orders.
I don't actually owe anyone the game. It's like when I want to do it and when I want to release it, it'll get done. I mean, it's true that I've announced the game, that does create a lot of pressure on me because I do feel like I don't want to disappoint the fans by taking too long, but there's no real physical obligation with it. It's more just mental constructs, you might say.
As far as pressure goes, I guess how do you perceive Haunted Chocolatier in relation to Stardew Valley? Because Stardew Valley was such a hit, does that make it harder to decide that Haunted Chocolatier is ready?
Barone: Absolutely. Yeah. It's been a huge struggle for me actually. See, what I want to do is just not care and just make the game however, just whatever, not worry about it. But it's basically impossible because I can't help but think about how this will be received. And I know that there's going to be a lot of people playing this game who are expecting it to be a Stardew Valley 2. And are they going to like it or not? And it's like, yes, I want to just make the game I want to make, but I also don't want a bunch of people to not like the game because they were expecting a certain thing. That's not going to feel good. I know that.
So that's been a constant struggle is like, "Do I just do whatever I want and not think about the existing player base or do I try to please the existing player base?" And I feel like there's just going to have to be a little bit of a balance between those things. It's been difficult. And also just the- I mean, I pretty much know that Haunted Chocolatier won't be as popular as Stardew Valley. I just feel like that's an extremely tall order. I mean, Stardew Valley was a once in a generation type of phenomenon. And part of that might've just been it was the right game at the right time. People were ready for this game.
As you mentioned before, there's been a whole cozy game burst. So it's like the market is saturated with cozy games. Maybe people are tired of cozy games by the time Haunted Chocolatier comes out, which is fine. I mean, I wouldn't even call Haunted Chocolatier a cozy game, but I'm just saying these games that are more focused on one town. Maybe people want to go on epic adventures again and they don't want to play Haunted Chocolatier. That's fine, but I got to still make the game I want to make.
Earlier, you mentioned that if you weren't working on Stardew Valley or Haunted Chocolatier, you'd just be making a new game every month. Do you have other things you want to make? Is there anything particular that you're yearning to get out there?
Barone: I mean, I would love to make small games and not worry about it. This goes back to me feeling like I have this rare opportunity. I've been granted a one in a billion opportunity to be in this position. It would almost feel like a waste of that to just make whatever I felt like doing. I feel like I need to do something big because I've been granted this opportunity. That being said, whenever I have an urge to make a small game, I might just do it and then make it as an arcade game in the cafe of Haunted Chocolatier. With Stardew Valley, I made Journey of the Prairie King and that could have been a little game on its own, but instead I made it an arcade game, so I integrated it into the world. So there's ways that I feel like anytime I feel like doing something, I can integrate it into the big game that I'm working on.
I tweeted a while ago about how, sometimes I start writing these stupid philosophical rant things. It's like, "Okay, instead of posting this online, I can just put this in a text document and then eventually put it in a book in the library of Haunted Chocolatier to add to the lore and just to the immersion." I feel like pretty much anything is like that. If I want to make music, which that's another thing, I've always been someone who likes to just make random music. It's like I can maybe take some of that and just put it into the game.
Even the most popular song in Stardew Valley, The Dance of the Moonlight Jellies was not a song that I made for Stardew Valley. I made that for just some random album on my secret Bandcamp. That just happened to be on some random album I made. And then I listened to it and I was like, "Hey, I like this song. I can take this and put this into Stardew Valley." And then that became the most popular song on Stardew Valley, according to Spotify. I think it's best if I, to some degree, follow my artistic whims and not force anything.
So Stardew Valley's still wildly popular after 10 years. That's really rare nowadays. Everybody's chasing that and nobody can have it except a couple of massive AAA live service games. I know you've been asked this a million times, but as you are now, what do you think it is about Stardew that keeps people coming back?
Barone: I think it's a few things. I think maybe most importantly is that Stardew and I guess myself, it's never been about trying to be as popular as possible and as widely played as possible, which I think people appreciate. It's almost like if you are chasing the money, then you don't get it because, people, that's not what they're looking for. They're looking for something authentic and real. And Stardew Valley I think has always remained like that because it's never turned into a big business. It's never been a business. It's always been about the game and about the players and about just making Stardew Valley the best it can be. And I think people can feel that in the game. And that's one of the reasons why they like it. It sticks out because a lot of stuff is corporate.
And I'm not saying anything bad about those games. I like a lot of AAA, corporate games myself, but at the end of the day, those games, they have investors. The companies have investors, they have to make money, they have to make profit. And so that I think, can cloud the- It can mar the pure love and passion that a true indie game can capture. I think that's part of what makes Stardew Valley stick out. And as a game itself, it feels very scrappy, I think still. Which is more relatable to people. It feels personal.
Everyone who plays Stardew Valley, it feels like their own personal game. So that's heartwarming to people, I think. I think another aspect to it is the multiplayer has been huge because it just brings people together. It's a fun and unique way to spend time with other people. And I'm saying this, trying to be as objective as possible as a gamer. I feel like there's not enough games that you can play cooperatively with your friends and it doesn't require a graphics card. Anyone can play it on their laptop.
I think that's part of what makes Stardew Valley stick out. And as a game itself, it feels very scrappy, which is more relatable to people. It feels personal.
I have a group of friends, they're not gamers per se. They don't have high-end graphics cards. We can't go and play 3D games really together and have it run well. Stardew Valley though, it's like it runs on anyone's potato and we can all play together. So I think that is big. And there's actually not a lot of games like that, to be honest. There's Terraria, which is great, and Minecraft works on most people's computers, but I think that makes it unique. And just the fact that it's chill, you don't have to lock in too hard. You can just play and chat and hang out, but you're still doing a fun activity together, which can be very rewarding.
It all goes back to human nature and what we're meant to do as humans. We were naturally meant to live in small communities and work together to gather resources, hunter-gatherers, forage roots and berries and all that stuff. That's what Stardew Valley is in a way. And in this modern world, we don't really get to do that anymore. And so Stardew Valley gives us a way to live, I think, our natural lives together. And I feel like that's why it feels so meaningful and good to people.
Last one. What does Stardew Valley look like in 10 years?
Barone: Whoa, that's crazy. In 10 years there'll be a few more updates, which just make the game even more what it's supposed to be. I feel like with every update, I'm trying to make Stardew Valley its ultimate form, fully self-actualized. So hopefully in 10 years, Stardew Valley is fully self-actualized. Maybe there's new things added to the game to make it even more future-proof, in terms of creative content or things that players can be almost a part of the process.
One idea that we were toying with for 1.7, I don't know if this will happen or not, but was adding a farm map editor for the public. So you could basically make your own. Because with every update, it's traditional to add a new farm type. When the game first came out, there was just standard farm, that was it. And then 1.1, I added four different farms or something. And then with every update, there's been one added. What if we opened this up to the community and it was like now you could press an extra button, go into a browser and look at everyone's farm creation? That now adds almost infinite replayability to Stardew Valley. So I'm interested in ways to make the game more just infinitely replayable without the use of AI. That's never going to happen.
Yeah, in 10 years, who knows? That's crazy. Hopefully Haunted Chocolatier will be out and maybe by then there'll be some new Stardew Valley IP stuff going on too. Stardew Valley is such a gold mine, I think, of potential things you could do with Stardew Valley. I have plenty of ideas. It's just a matter of basically bandwidth because in order for it to maintain what I feel like is Stardew Valley's soul. Well, I feel like I need to be heavily involved in it. And I'm not saying that to throw any shade on anyone else. My team is great. I love them. They're great, but I still feel like I need to be heavily involved or else it's not going to feel like Stardew Valley.
It's your baby.
Barone: Exactly. So if there's going to be a Stardew Valley 2 or a spinoff game or some related thing with Stardew Valley, then that's going to require my full attention. So maybe this would be after Haunted Chocolatier comes out, which will hopefully- In 10 years, Haunted Chocolatier will be out. Maybe there'll be some new Stardew Valley project that's out even in 10 years.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
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