You've probably been pronouncing Balatro wrong all along, but 'it's kind of a gif/jif situation'

live action Jimbo the Jester from Balatro holding a playing card and addressing the camera — (Image credit: PlayStack)

Balatro wasn't just PC Gamer's game of the year 2024: pretty much every developer seems hooked on it (including Swen Vincke). But unfortunately things have now taken a distressing turn.

There's an official way to pronounce Balatro, and it's not what I thought. I say Ba-lah-tro and so do most members of the PCG team. But Stephen Totilo over at Game File recently put the question to Naman Budhwar, head of marketing at the game's publisher Playstack, and he says otherwise.

"BAH-luh-trow is how LocalThunk says it," says Budhwar. "But it’s kind of a 'gif / jif' situation, where he doesn’t really mind how people say it.

Balatro - Official Launch Trailer - YouTube

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My disappointment is immeasurable, my day is ruined, and for some reason I keep thinking of that time John Romero said "gib" was pronounced with a soft "g".

Developer LocalThunk's been on a well-deserved victory lap recently, sharing the full timeline of the game's development along with various other tidbits (such as when he resumed development because he couldn't play Rocket League). Oh, and the time they released a demo of the game where the full version could be unlocked in Notepad.

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."

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