Stardew Valley's creator Eric Barone explains why the 1.6 update was released first on PC, before consoles. 'It's a kind of beta test.'

Stardew Valley 1.6 has been a constant project for Eric "ConcernedApe", Barone, since the PC patch was released in March.

The update brought back 150,000 players, but 1.6 was only available on PC for a long time.

The porting of the update for console and mobile took a long time. Barone admitted that it was interfering with Haunted Chocolatier’s development. Even after Barone announced that the console and mobile update would be released on November 4, some players wondered why it took so long, when the PC version was ready months earlier.

Barone said in a Twitter that he always releases the game on PC first, as it's a "beta test" to ensure there are no critical bugs (eg. save-destroying bugs) which are a bigger deal on consoles, because they can't patch them out as quickly. "However I never intended the delay to last this long."

After the Stardew Valley update 1.6, there have been a couple of small patches for PC. These patches have mostly addressed minor bugs that players found. The 1.6.3 update, which was released a few days after 1.6, fixed a "creepy" face on a bear. It also adjusted the drop rates of various items. The latest 1.6.6 patch included a number of bug fixes and balance improvements, including a disappearing Raccoon and an inaccessible area within the volcano dungeon.

While 1.6 is a huge update with a lot of new features and a great achievement, it was necessary to fix countless little bugs before the launch of consoles and mobile. Barone is a perfectionist and takes a lot time to work on Stardew Valley. A long wait is not surprising.

Fortunately, most players are coping well with the long wait. "Don't worry that people will be impatient or mean, even though you have worked so hard on the update," says one player. "Thank you so much for setting a date. I can't believe it!"