Balatro, a rogue-like deck-builder game, has been available to play on the Nintendo Switch eShop for nearly a couple of weeks now. For the most part, the game’s release has been going well. Unfortunately though, there has been an exception for Nintendo Switch users that live in European regions.
Publisher Playstack has issued a statement on Twitter saying that the game has been temporarily removed from sale in Switch eShops in Europe. According to Playstack, the reason for the removal is “a reaction to an overnight change to Balatro’s age rating from 3+ to 18+ by a ratings board without any advance warning, due to a mistaken belief that the game ‘contains prominent gambling imagery and material that instructs about gambling'”.
It is worth noting that this issue seems to be only for Europe. In North America, the game’s ESRB rating is 10+ with the inclusion of a “Gambling Themes” note. As for Europeans, Playstack says that “please rest assured the game will be back up on sale, possibly with a temporary 18+ rating while we resolve the issue”. You can see their statement in full down below.
it says that it’s only temporally delisted from certin digital storefronts.
i like how games with microtransactions and loot boxes get a pass, but shit like this has ”LE SCARY POKER GAME” and countries go apeshit