Windows 11 Glitch Turns Every Game Into Stardew Valley

gamerant.com:

More than five years after its release, farming simulator Stardew Valley continues to grow in popularity. The game, which is now available for multiple consoles as well as PC and mobile devices, challenges players to restore their grandfather's failing farm, located in the titular valley. Stardew Valley allows players to fight monsters, catch legendary fish, explore tropical islands and more via a number of free updates pushed out by game creator Eric «ConcernedApe» Barone.

However, one Stardew Valley player may have gotten a little more of the farming simulator than they bargained for when they encountered a bizarre glitch with the PC version of the game. The cause of the glitch was eventually determined to be the Windows 11 operating system, which previously received criticism from gamers due to seemingly decreasing the performance of various PC games by up to 25% due to newly implemented security features. Luckily, this glitch did not impact Stardew Valley's performance, but it was quite unique nonetheless.

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A user going by SnooMuffins7493 took to the Stardew Valley Reddit community to ask why every game on their desktop had suddenly had their icon change to that of Stardew Valley. While the community did provide a helpful response that allowed SnooMuffins7493 to reverse the situation, they also joked about hypothetical combinations between Stardew Valley and other affected games. Games with icon changes affected by this glitch included Rocket League, Minecraft, Terraria, and recent mega-hit Elden Ring.

A commenter realized the source of the issue: the symbol representing «desktop shortcut,» typically portrayed as an arrow, had been accidentally replaced with the Stardew