As Stardew Valley fans reel from the farming sim juggernaut's Infinity Nikki crossover, Eric Barone says "I never receive any money from these collabs" and "I've only done them because I was a fan of the other games"

Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has seemingly commented on the recently announced collaboration between Stardew Valley and cozy gacha game Infinity Nikki, saying he doesn't earn a dime from crossovers.

Yes, in case you're hearing this for the first time, Infinity Nikki is getting content themed around an official Stardew Valley crossover on September 1. Although we don't yet know the specifics, Infinity Nikki confirmed the collab via its own official channels, saying only, "Cozy surprises await you, and adventure is in the air. Prepare your senses for a harvest of wonders."

It's unclear if Stardew itself is getting any new content from the crossover, but so far we have no indication that that's the case.

Still, the news brought unlikely crossovers to the top of industry conversation today, and Barone aptly added this little tidbit in the form of a tweet:

"There have been a few collaborations between Stardew Valley and other games over the years. To be clear, i never receive any money from these collabs. I've only done them because I was a fan of the other games, or because I genuinely thought the players would like it."

Stardew Valley crossovers are few and far between, with the only other examples being Terraria and Balatro, so Infinity Nikki will soon share that exceedingly rare honor as one of the very few games Barone deems worthy of collabing with.

If it's true that Barone doesn't charge anything for collabs like these, and there's no reason to believe it isn't true, that's genuinely commendable. An IP as beloved as Stardew Valley would command quite the pretty penny for official branding in other products, but alas, Barone replied to a fan saying he deserves the money and said, "Thank you but it's oaky [sic], I've made enough from sales of the game."

As of December 2024, the developer had managed to shift 41 million copies of Stardew Valley across all platforms, and without a publisher taking its share, I'll let you do the math and figure out roughly how much dough he's raked in.

Coral Island shows pulling off Stardew Valley's multiplayer isn't easy, as the farm sim's devs "sincerely apologize" for the single-player bugs and other issues that crept into its latest update