Balatro, a game that I’ve now sunk well over 100 hours into with no sign of slowing, is getting a physical release!
The reveal was made during today’s Giant Bomb at Nite live show, where special guest Wout van Halderen – PR Manager at Balatro’s publisher Playstack – broke the news along with Jeff Grubb.
The physical “Special Edition” version of the game will come complete with some a booster pack of actual cards from the game, presumably including some Joker/Tarot/Celestial cards and will be available for PlayStation, Switch and Xbox with pre-orders opening “soon.” Wout was asked in the stream whether the included cards will be randomised for that extra level of RNG, but stressed that the team has chosen a specific collection of cards that will be the same in each box so as to be fair to anyone who picks it up and to highlight some absolute favourites.
You can see the announcement a couple of hours into the VOD below:
I gave Balatro a 9.5/10 in my review, saying, “Balatro is one of those deceptively-approachable ideas that will absolutely consume you the more you start to puzzle out its secrets and intricacies. It somehow makes playing the same game over and over feel completely fresh in possibility each time, and doles out just enough new ideas and just the right amount of intoxicating feedback to keep you thinking “one more game” well into the AM.”
The game has also been announced for a mobile release in the future.