Since launching in 2024, Balatro has proven hugely successful, and has seen a steady stream of free updates. Over the last year, the game has received tie-ins based on popular franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Fallout. Despite all of this success, Balatro developer LocalThunk has avoided offering anything in terms of actual paid DLC. That’s kind of a rarity in today’s video game industry, where developers often have extra charges in mind before a game is even released. In a pair of posts on Bluesky, LocalThunk addressed the lack of paid DLC in the game, revealing why it’s unlikely we’ll see that in the future.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“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,” said LocalThunk. “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.”
While most gamers have become desensitized to this type of advertising, LocalThunk does raise a good point. So many modern games inundate the player with screens pushing extra content, and it’s easy to forget just how obtrusive it makes starting a game in the modern era. For newcomers or casual gamers, it could be potentially off-putting to see unskippable screens asking the player to spend more money before they’ve even started the game in the first place. Extra content should be something that people get excited about, rather than something that’s pushed on them right from the start.
For anyone hoping to see paid extra content added to Balatro, these statements seem to render it unlikely. It’s possible the game could see more “Friends of Jimbo” updates, and LocalThunk seems to be planning other free content. However, it seems the developer would prefer to avoid any kind of paid expansions. In an industry where DLC and season passes seem to get released for every major game, that’s somewhat refreshing. And it doesn’t seem like it’s going to hurt Balatro either, given the fact that the game has already sold more than 5 million copies while receiving rave reviews. Balatro does have that advantage over a lot of other games; it doesn’t have to sell DLC to offset development costs or act as a way to give the game extra longevity.
RELATED: Balatro Creators Answer the Question Everyone’s Been Asking
That fact doesn’t seem lost on LocalThunk. The developer is clearly aware of the reasons that DLC exists. Season passes and downloadable content aren’t inherently a bad thing, but the way a lot of games approach them can be predatory, or just plain off-putting. In an era where gamers feel like they’re constantly being nickel and dimed by season passes, DLC, and live-service games, it’s nice that Balatro exists as a game with just a single purchase required.
Would you like to see paid DLC for Balatro? Do you agree about the impact DLC has on a user’s experience? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!
