"Balatro Reclassified to PEGI 12 After Publisher's Appeal"

Frequent readers (and why wouldn't you be?) may recall one of the more oddball stories from last year: the roguelike deckbuilder Balatro was initially slapped with a PEGI 18 rating by the ratings board. This put it on the same level as heavy hitters like Grand Theft Auto, which left many, including the developer, scratching their heads in confusion.

Fortunately, PEGI has acknowledged their mistake and reclassified Balatro to the more fitting (and in my opinion, appropriate) PEGI 12 rating. Developer Localthunk took to Twitter to share the good news, revealing that the reclassification came after an appeal by Balatro's publisher to the board.

This isn't the first time Balatro has run into trouble with external organizations. It was briefly pulled from the Nintendo eShop due to concerns over perceived gambling content. This is despite the fact that players can't win real money or place bets; the only use of cash in the game is as an abstract way to purchase more cards during each run.

As mentioned earlier, one of the primary reasons for Balatro's initial harsh classification was its depiction of gambling-adjacent imagery. Essentially, the concern was that players might learn what a straight flush or a flush is, which was considered as severe as vehicular homicide in GTA.

The misclassification has also affected Balatro's presence on mobile platforms, despite the widespread use of in-app transactions across these platforms. While it's better late than never for this correction, it's frustrating that it happened in the first place.

If this news is finally convincing you to give Balatro a try, why not check out our tier list of Jokers? It'll help you figure out which of these game-changing cards are worth your time and which ones you might want to skip.