Balatro developer says they’re expanding the hit game in 2025 — but not changing it
polygon.comWhen a video game has lots of success right off the bat, sometimes things get weird — strange breakdowns in communication with the audience, for example, or hitches in the code that put people off of the experience en masse. Luckily for Balatro, the hit poker-inspired roguelike currently available on Steam and modern consoles, things have been pretty chill. Folks keep drawing cards, buying jokers, and putting up incredibly high scores. But that doesn’t mean that LocalThunk, the game’s singular developer, is resting on his laurels.
On Wednesday, LocalThunk announced that Balatro’s “first major gameplay update” is due to be released some time in 2025. We were able to get the developer on a video conference the very next day, and while we still don’t know what’s going to be in the update (trust me, I asked), we did get just a little bit behind LocalThunk’s process for making it. Fans shouldn’t expect it to feel like a sequel. Likewise, there won’t be a big button on the main menu with options for “New Balatro” and “OldBalatro.” It’s still going to be the same game, with the same kind of front end. But, LocalThunk said, it is going to feel a lot bigger than the game that launched in February 2024.
The first major gameplay update is coming to Balatro in 2025!
This update will bring new ideas and strategies to the game and as a token of huge appreciation to the game’s brilliant and passionate community, the update will be completely free. pic.twitter.com/xS8ZQrTZGi
“It won’t be fundamentally different,” LocalThunk told Polygon. “You’re still going to be playing Balatro. I don’t want this game to be two games, and just one day it switches [over].
“I still have a really strong vision,” he continued, “so I’m just thinking of extending that vision to, I think, its logical bounds instead of shifting directions into a different type of game that I also like. Definitely, I’m thinking more about filling out the design space that currently exists, and then extending that design
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