Balatro, the roguelike poker indie game that captured the attention of many players earlier this year, isn’t stopping any time soon. In a Tuesday announcement, developer LocalThunk revealed that a big free update is coming next year.
The update will bring “new ideas and strategies” to the game, and it’ll all come out across PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, PC via Steam, and Switch. This is the first of three announcements publisher Playstack and LocalThunk have planned for now through September, but the two are keeping their cards close to the chest. There isn’t any word on what the other announcements might entail, but they’ll be revealed at “undisclosed times.”
In addition, Balatro has sold 2 million units since its release in February. This is a huge milestone for any game, let alone an indie deckbuilder from a solo developer. The success is thanks to its satisfying game loop, which has players going through multiple rounds of poker, but with the addition of cards that can impact gameplay or provide bonuses for certain hands. The roguelike elements mean you have to play over and over again to unlock more cards or use the best strategy to win. There’s still luck involved, but it’s combined with techniques built up over multiple rounds
“I would never have thought that Balatro would be played by over 2 million people when I started working on it almost 3 years ago. I’m so grateful to all the players for giving it a chance and I’m excited to show everyone the next chapter for my game,” LocalThunk said in a press release.
While the game is essentially poker, it has no connection to classic gambling, despite run-ins with platforms shortly after release that got the game delisted. In fact, LocalThunk hates the idea that Balatro could possibly be used for gambling and noted on X (formerly Twitter) that their will states that the IP would never be sold to “any gambling company/Casino.”
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.