Balatro creator Localthunk has never shied away from sharing his opinions on anything topical, and in that grand tradition he’s now railing against one of the most universally hated aspects of modern video games: microtransactions.
Balatro’s wild success story can be attributed to a range of factors, not least of which is its engrossing roguelike/poker gameplay loop, but surely its clean, ad-free UI and lack of microtransactions didn’t hurt. There’s also little doubt that Localthunk could make a pretty penny by opening up Balatro to optional purchases, but thankfully the solo dev hates that sort of thing just as much as the rest of us.
“The honest reason I don’t have microtransactions/season pass/ads/100 DLCs/etc in Balatro isn’t just about the ethics of those practices but because when I play other games that have those things it makes me want to put my computer in the dishwasher and set it to pots & pans,” Localthunk shared in a post on Bluesky.
“Like I get why people add those things but you’re shooting your UX in the foot if players are having their first impression and also being bombarded with a bunch of nonsense that isn’t actually the game.”
As a mobile-friendly game, and an extremely successful one at that, it’s rare and refreshing that Balatro is such a straightforward buy-and-play experience. As Localthunk said elsewhere, “there’s like a 95% chance that if the game is [free-to-play] then the main menu UI is more complicated than the actual game UI.”
And if you’re wondering, Localthunk says this wasn’t a targeted dig at any specific game. But when asked about Marvel Snap, the dev added “I’m not letting them off the hook either.”
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