Stardew Valley is coming to Game Pass

As part of an ID@Xbox indie showcase on Tuesday, Stardrew Valley developer Eric Barone announced that his farm life sim will be coming to Game Pass. "There's not a set release date yet, but it's probably sometime in the fall," Barone said.

Stardew Valley first launched on Steam in 2016, and has since made its way to consoles and mobile. At $15 (and frequently on sale), it's an easy buy as one of the best games on PC. And a lot of people have bought it—as of early 2020, Stardew had passed 10 million sales. But being added to Game Pass will put it in front of an even bigger potential audience.

As of this April, Microsoft's Game Pass had reportedly passed 22 million subscribers, so that's at least 12 million people who haven't played Stardew yet. And Game Pass is an ideal way to lure friends into Stardew's co-op mode, which lets four people share ownership of a single farm.

Even after five years Barone has stayed busy working on Stardew Valley. As we wrote early in 2021, the recent 1.5 update added a wealth of new features and an expanded endgame. Barone also co-designed a Stardew Valley board game which is currently sold out. Hopefully it'll be back in stock by the time Stardew lands on Game Pass later this year.