Stardew Valley Dev Has Very Bad News About Haunted Chocolatier

As Stardew Valley fans on console and mobile wait formore information on the in-development port of the 1.6 Update, developer ConcernedApe has an unfortunate update on his other project Haunted Chocolatier. Despite dropping the 1.6 Update for PC in early 2024, the Stardew Valley community has been split for the better half of six months as those on console still don’t have accessto the latest content. As a side-effect of this delay, ConcernedApe has had to pump the brakes on the highly-anticipated game.

Writing on X (formerly Twitter), ConcernedApe admitted that because he’s been extensively working on the console version of Stardew Valley 1.6, he’s been unable to continue development on Haunted Chocolatier.

He notes that he hasn’t “touched Haunted Chocolatier in a long time” as his priorities lie fully with Stardew Valley. ConcernedApe wraps up his post by apologizing for the extended delay, stating that he understands why so many people are frustrated and angry about the prolonged wait.

Why Is Stardew Valley 1.6 Taking So Long For Consoles?

Different Systems, Different Problems

When it comes to releasing patches for games, PC is widely regarded as the platform that’s easiest to adjust and fix should something break or go wrong. This is why the PC release of Stardew Valley 1.6arrived much earlier than other versions since there was less concern about correctly shipping everything in one patch. When it comes to updating titles on Xbox and PlayStation, the process is more time-consuming since it needs to pass more regulations and approvals.

ConcernedApe has previously stated that the console ports are taking so long because he wants to make sure they’re perfect and avoid any potential hotfix requirements. Given that Stardew Valley is a solo-dev project, most of the production falls onto him, meaning progress can be slow at times, especially when dealing with platform owners like Microsoft and Sony. There’s currently no release date for the console and mobile versions of Stardew Valley 1.6 but one has to hope it’ll be in players’ hands before the end of the year.

As for Haunted Chocolatier, placing so much emphasis on post-launch support for Stardew Valleyhas split ConcernedApe’s time. At the end of the day, both projects are his so he can decide how best to run both, but fans are becoming increasingly worried about the upcoming game. Announced three years ago, there’s still no confirmed release date, and by the sounds of things, there won’t be one for a while yet.

Source: ConcernedApe/X