Balatro Dev Reached Out to PEGI and Asked to Lower the Game's Rating

LocalThunk, the developer of the beloved poker-inspired roguelike Balatro, has reached out PEGI and talked about the game's rating, which the establishment has defined as 18+. However, the dev has seen no success, and the game's aging will not be lowered.

LocalThunk shared that PEGI didn't agree to change Balatro's rating and "didn't see anything wrong Balatro being rated 18+, nor with EA sports FC (and similar games) having a 3+ rating."

Back in March, Balatro's rating jumped from 3+ to 18+ overnight, and the dev believed it was unjustified. He said: "I think the one thing I am most disappointed by is the fact that other games with actual gambling mechanics aren't rated the same way because of their appearance/theme."

Recently, LocalThunk expressed his dissatisfaction again, saying that he even had the thought of adding real gambling techniques to the game and noted that other games, which have such in-game options, have much lower rating: "Since PEGI gave us an 18+ rating for having evil playing cards maybe I should add microtransactions/loot boxes/real gambling to lower that rating to 3+ like EA sports FC."

The question of gambling in the EA sports game FIFA 2023 was controversial and even a matter of legal dispute. In October, the Higher Regional Court of Vienna, ruled that loot boxes in Electronic Arts' FIFA 23 should not be classified as gambling.

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