Balatro Developer Cites “Hobbyist” Approach for Update Delay

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Balatro took the world by storm during the early months of 2024. This poker-themed roguelike deck-builder has seen over 5 million copies of the game sold by January 2025. It has also received the prestigious award of Game of the Year at the 25th Game Developers Choice Awards, as well as nominations at the 2024 Game Awards, the 28th Annual D.I.C.E Awards, and the 21st British Academy Games Awards. Here’s the craziest part of all it – Balatro was a solo-project by one developer by the name of LocalThunk.

Since Balatro’s release, there have been several cosmetic updates to the game, which featured cross-overs with other popular games. These updates, known as the “Friends of Jimbo” updates, were released in August, October, and December of 2024, with the last releasing in February 2025. Truth be told – these cosmetic cross-overs are far too extensive to list out. Along with the initial release of these cosmetic upgrades, LocalThunk cited additional updates that would be released in 2025.

Sadly, though, these updates are not going to be coming in 2025. In a blogpost from LocalThunk’s blog, it was announced that the 1.1 Update would not be releasing as expected. LocalThunk expanded on this, citing that their hobbyist approached to development would not allow for this deadline to be met.

“I took a break from everything to do with the game for a few months until the start of 2025 when I very slowly eased myself back into the work. However, I chose to only work on the game like I did when the project began, as a hobbyist (a few hours per day, and not always on the 1.1 update), and it turns out that it’s a lot slower than working in crunch mode 12 hours per day like I was around launch.”

But never fear though! LocalThunk has also reported that while the 1.1 Update may be delayed, it will be a free update and will also not be the last update to Balatro.

You can take a peek at Gamer Social Club’s review of Balatro here. Rest assured, you can also stay connected with us as we near the release to Balatro’s 1.1 Update, whenever it comes!