ConcernedApe didn’t say he’s introducing Stardew Valley sidepieces for the 1.7 update, but there are mods for that

There’s been a bit of a hullabaloo in the Stardew Valley community this week. A new interview went live, followed by some X posts, which had some assuming we were going to be able to cheat on our spouses in a new update. This isn’t the case, so let us look at the facts.

In now-deleted tweets by AUTOMATONJapan, Pirat_Nation, and GoNintendoTweets, it was claimed that ConcernedApe was adding infidelity to Pelican Town’s romance options. There are still some other articles floating around that claim cheating is going to be ‘encouraged’ in the next update, but we now know that this isn’t true at all, and was misinterpreted. Most outlets have since rescinded their statements and have apologized for spreading false information.

The thought came from recent X posts by ConcernedApe, where he talks about something he had considered once, and from information in a recent interview with GameInformer – which is paywalled, if you want to read it. To quote the developer’s tweets exactly:

“The only thing I had ever “considered” was allowing players to break up Pierre/Caroline or Robin/Demetrius, but even that is probabl too heavy and serious, and would be a ton of work to adjust all dialogue and tone of everyone in town in consequence, and Grandpa ashamed of you […] it was just some theoretical idea I’ve toyed with. I don’t condone doing it either. but there is precedent for things like that in Stardew, like going to the DARK SHRINE OF SLEFISHNESS to turn your kids into doves, and then they haunt you forever

I’m not going to actually do this. I was jsut talking theoretically, that if I WERE then I wouldn’t just make it some consequence-free thing, everyone would hate you, there would be severe conseequences for your moral failures […] If you’re making a snadbox game I think iut’s interestint to allow people to do things, even bad things. But there should be consequences. That teaches you a life lesson. If you just get away with it or everyone is chill with it, that woul be bad”

So no, he isn’t adding any infidelity or the ability to break up previously established relationships… even if we really all want to try our luck with Robin. ConcernedApe has replied to other tweets, doubling down, saying that “it’s fake news” and that they were “clickbait articles”.

While it could be fun to be a marriage destroyer in Pelican Town, along the lines of doing a dark run where you agree to help spread Joja’s reign, it does go against the laid-back and generally positive vibe of the game. But if you really want to, there are Stardew Valley mods for that. There are mods for everything. Divorce events, ‘affairs with married women’, even child custody mods – you name it, it probably exists out there.

You can still ‘date’ and build up relationships with multiple people, but you just can’t marry more than one of them. They can find out about each other, though, so beware. In Stardew Valley update 1.7, this will also include Clint and Sandy, so look forward to that!