Stardew Valley Free Download Praised By Gamers: 'He's The Best'

There are a lot of very well-liked games out there but few can claim to be quite as beloved as Stardew Valley. Originally starting with a solo developer (ConcernedApe) before graduating to a small team, the continued game updates have been a masterclass in careful planning and execution.

It also seems to have a pretty endless shelf life, thanks in part to the regular updates, and the arrival of a new console usually sees the game debut before long.

Thankfully, the Switch 2 is no exception, with an upgraded version of the game on the way for Nintendo's latest piece of hardware. As well as looking great, this edition of Stardew Valley comes with some cool features, including 4-player split screen co-op, GameShare and mouse controls. In even better news for players, the game will also be available as a free upgrade for those who already own it on the original Switch.

It's that confirmation that has really captured the community again, with many taking to social media to express how grateful they are.

Over on Reddit, one player shared the news and the replies were flooded with positive feedback.

"I feel like I’m ripping off Concerned Ape with the amount of hours I’ve played this game, even though I’ve bought it three times," one said.

Another added, "Is anyone surprised? As a thank you, we should all buy Haunted Chocolatier, whether it's good or not (it's going to be good)," referring to the developers next release.

A third piled on the praise, saying, "I swear, Ape must be allergic to money. He could've gone the corpo route and charged money for some of the updates, but they were free. He could've charged for multi-player. But that was free. He could've charged for the upgrade. But it's free. I mean this in the best possible way: Ape is a terrible businessman. And we all love him."

The only caveat to all of this free upgrade malarkey is for customers in Japan, where the law prohibits this new version of Stardew Valley for free. Instead, the developer has set it to the lowest possible price, in an attempt to alleviate the financial burden for fans in that country.

We haven't got an exact release date for the Switch 2 version of Stardew Valley just yet, but Nintendo did confirming that it's coming at some point in "Fall 2025," so we shouldn't have too long to wait.