Stardew Valley's multiplayer update finally arrives on Switch this week
Xbox One and PS4 updates a "top priority".
Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has announced that the long-awaited multiplayer update for Stardew Valley on Switch will launch this Wednesday, December 12th.
We've known that co-operative multiplayer would be coming to Stardew Valley on Switch for a good long while now, of course. During a Nintendo Direct early last year, it was revealed that Switch would be the first console to receive the update, and that it would arrive once it had been successfully tested and released on PC.
For those that haven't been following along since then, Stardew Valley's online multiplayer update enables up for four players to coexist on a single farm - host players live in the farmhouse while their pals get cabins - working together to share the toils and spoils of hard labour.
There's scope for individual pursuits too, and players can wander into town to woo everybody's favourite misunderstood muscle-jock Alex (or, you know, whatever), as the mood arises.
The world state and an overall pool of cash are shared among all players but, as ConcernedApe reminds in his latest blog post, "inventories, skills, achievements, collections, individual relationships, quests, and crafting/cooking recipes" are unique to individuals.
To facilitate co-operation, Stardew Valley's multiplayer update adds voice chat and a new text-based communication tool, and there's also a pleasing bounty of new single-player content, which was also included as part of the update on PC earlier this year.
[VERY LIGHT SPOILERS START HERE] There's a travelling festival that appears for three days over winter, offering unique items, live entertainment, and more, as well as new character events, and a new "secret" collection type. Additionally, there are craftable signs and, most importantly of all, your horse can now wear hats [VERY LIGHT SPOILERS END HERE].
Stardew Valley's multiplayer update is free to everyone that owns the game on Switch, and Barone notes that bringing multiplayer to PS4 and Xbox One is a "top priority". To that end, he's "working with Sickhead Games to get [it to players] as soon as possible."