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Balatro’s new free update adds some surprising crossovers, including The Witcher

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Balatro: Friends of Jimbo – Reveal Trailer – Nintendo Switch

There is a lot of change coming to Balatro, including four video game crossovers in the free Friends of Jimbo update announced during the August 2024 Indie World Showcase. You can get these new card skins starting on Tuesday.

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The popular poker roguelike is getting new cosmetic card skins from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Dave the Diver, Vampire Survivors, and Among Us. We already knew about one of these since a trailer unveiled at Gamescom 2024 last week announced a number of Dave the Diver crossovers, including Balatro, but we weren’t expecting the chance to see Geralt, Yennefer, and Jaskier as the king, queen, and jack face cards or vampire and monster cards from Vampire Survivors.

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Each of the crossovers adds new face cards, but they’re optional and can be turned off in the new deck settings menu. It’s unclear if these cards will have any other effects. The press materials don’t mention anything, but we’re curious.

“It was surreal having these conversations. Some of the biggest names in gaming praising my little project and wanting to collaborate — absolutely wild. I’m glad we made it happen!” developer LocalThunk said in a press release.

This is the second of three big updates publisher Playstack Games teased for Balatro, which launched in February and became a massive hit thanks to its satisfying gameplay loop that combines the adrenaline rush of playing poker with the randomness of jokers, which can add special boosts to each run. The first was the announcement that it would be getting a big free update in 2025, although neither the developer, nor the publisher have revealed any details on what that could entail just yet.

Either way, Playstack promises the final reveal is “going to be a banger.” There will also be more cards added to the game later in 2024.

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Carli Velocci
Carli Velocci
Contributor, Games
Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…
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