Stardew Valley Multiplayer Update Release Date Announced

Those who have been keeping track of Stardew Valley's development ever since its release will know that there's one particular feature that's been a very long time coming: multiplayer functionality!

Well, we are happy to say that ConcernedApe, the developer of this wonderful little game, now finally has a final release date for the game's rather ubiquitous content update. This will also include some as-of-yet unannounced content and smaller features, as well as the usual slew of fixes, balancing passes and similar things that we've come to know and expect from contemporary game updates.

Available already via Steam's Beta game testing branch, Stardew Valley's multiplayer feature is set for official release on August 1 for PC, with consoles following soon thereafter. Upon release, players will be able to team up in groups of up to four, work their farms together, go spelunking in the dungeon, fish, tend to the animals, or any combination of these activities, as there's no need for them all to be bunched up on a single map. Worth noting is that, whereas while playing solo, the game pauses time rather often (during interaction with menus, playing minigames, etc.), but this is not the case in multiplayer for obvious reasons. This will make time management in multiplayer more important than is the case in singleplayer, but on the flip side, you will have more manpower available for task juggling. Along with base multiplayer functionality, this update will also see the marriage feature expanded so that it includes not only NPCs, but other players as well. Additionally, Stardew Valley will also be getting a difficulty slider which will, for example, adjust the profit margins for your produce and such.