Stardew Valley creator announces 10-year anniversary video airing tomorrow with "pre-release footage" and "new 1.7 marriage candidates," reminds fans they "never" pay for updates

Pack your bags, we're going back to the Valley – Stardew Valley creator Eric "Concerned Ape" Barone is preparing a gift for us on the cozy farming sim's 10-year anniversary. On February 26 at 2pm ET/11am PT, the developer will release a commemorative YouTube video that discloses mores details about the upcoming 1.7 update and its two new marriage candidates.

That's great, because currently, we have approximately zero details. Barone teased the new marriage options' existence earlier this month, though he didn't give any more substantial hints about who they are, or how handy they might be with your fishing rod. Now, Barone is following through on his previous commitment to spilling the beans during Stardew Valley's anniversary celebration, writing in an announcement on Twitter that, "in the [to-be-released commemorative video] video, I comment on some pre-release footage, and reveal the 2 new 1.7 marriage candidates at the end.

"See you in the chat."

See you in the chat? More like, see you right now in your Twitter replies. In response to some of fans' understandably immediate, breathless questions, Barone clarifies a few more things about Stardew's incoming 1.7 update, which could be its last, and tomorrow's anniversary video. Namely, you'll "never!" need to pay for a Stardew update, and the entire video will be 23 minutes long.

"Man there's no way I can last that long," one fan replies, with church bells no doubt ringing in their head.

"That's fair," Barone responds, acknowledging that he's the one making the church bells chime. "I'll post the reveal of the 2 new marriage candidates here some time after the video is out, so you can learn about it that way too." So romantic.

Stardew Valley patch finally stops unruly Switch 2 port from stealing precious inventory items while crafting, and makes the farming sim "obey" parental controls when you join GameShare.