Stardew Valley is coming to Xbox Game Pass this autumn
For the four of you who don't already own it
During this evening's ID@Xbox showcase, Stardew Valley developer Eric Barone announced that the farming sim would be coming to Xbox Game Pass this autumn.
At this point, Stardew Valley feels ubiquitous. It has sold millions of copies and its regularly discounted, so there's a fairly good chance that you already own it. The real appeal of it coming to Game Pass, for me, is that it should make it easier to convince friends to play it co-operatively.
"I'm happy to announce that Stardew Valley will be coming to Game Pass," said Barone. "There's not like a set release date yet, but it's probably sometime in the fall. I really hope that it brings Stardew Valley to a lot more people and a lot more people get to experience the world of Stardew Valley."
You can watch the full interview at 2:26:14 into this archive of the stream, and the Game Pass announcement happens around 2:34:00. There are no other details about the Game Pass release or the future of the game, but some nice chat about its impact on the games industry. Impact such as all the other games inspired by it.
Barone has continued to update Stardew since launch, with the last major update being 1.5 in December 2020, which added beach farms, new endgame content and split-screen co-op.
Games come and go from Xbox Game Pass each month, but the list of stone cold classics on there is looking pretty good right now. Hades arrives later this week, for example.