I can't even make jokes about Terraria's final update anymore when the devs are already teasing "long requested items" just a month after 1.4.5 dropped

I used to make jokes about how many "final" updates Terraria has had, but at this point, is it even a joke anymore? I think the launch of 1.4.5 marked the sixth final update for the sandbox game, but I've honestly lost track at this point. Yet, wouldn't you know it? Just one month later, developer Re-Logic is already teasing even more content on the way.

There are bug fixes and balance tweaks on the horizon, but that stuff's to be expected. The real surprise in the latest Terraria State of the Game blog (spotted by PCGamesN) is "more items."

"We're experimenting with adding a few long requested items," the devs say. "What those may be will remain a mystery for now…" Add to that some quality of life tweaks, including "some more hotkeys and other gameplay adjustments," and you've got a nice little final update going. Plus the devs even have "a very exciting potential feature for builders" working in a recent internal beta, which they're teasing with the following image.

Your guess is as good as mine as to exactly what the big building change here is, but I think it's increasingly clear we're living in a post-post-post-final update world. How can we make jokes about it when Re-Logic is just continuing to deliver more, and more, and more updates to a game now approaching its 15th birthday? At some point, we have to recognize that Terraria is well and truly a forever game.

Or, as lead developer Andrew "Redigit" Spinks put it last year: "Terraria will never die as long as there is one last final update."

Stardew Valley creator "wanted the mines to be like Terraria," but it was way "too ambitious" in the end: "Should have been an entire game on its own."