We’ve been dreading the day that Balatro would make its way to mobile, and it’s finally almost here. The roguelike poker hit is officially coming to iOS and Android on September 26 — or as we’re calling it, the day productivity dies.
Publisher Playstack announced the news with an absolutely unhinged trailer (you can watch it above) that’s all about how screwed up our ability to get anything else done will be. Even developer LocalThunk said “I’m sorry” about the release.
You can now preorder it on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for $10. It’ll also be available on Apple Arcade as Balatro+. With the launch, the game will be easier than ever to play on the go and distract you as you’re going about your regular day.
Balatro was a huge success almost immediately, selling 1 million copies in its first month on PC and console thanks to its satisfying gameplay loop. You’re tasked with winning chips as you play through rounds of solo poker; the difference is that you’ll get access to Jokers and other special cards that’ll impact how you play and any bonuses you get. Your goal is to beat the Boss Blinds at the end of each round, but that’s easier said than done.
Playstack has been celebrating Balatro with a number of announcements over the past month. First, we learned that Balatro would be getting a massive free update in 2025 that’ll bring “new ideas and strategies” to the game. Players also got access to another free update called Friends of Jimbo, which added crossover cosmetic cards from the likes of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Vampire Survivors.
We previously knew that a mobile version was incoming thanks to a Reddit Ask Me Anything thread in March. We also learned that LocalThunk was working on the ports. It was just a matter of time before it showed up to destroy any social lives we had left.
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.