The card game Balatro has been removed, hopefully temporarily, from Nintendo eShop European because it is equated to gamble by PEGI and classified as 18+.
The official message from Playstack, the development studio, with the announcement of the removal refers to multiple stores, but we have checked and the PC, PlayStation and Xbox versions are regularly purchasable, so for now only the Nintendo Switch version is no longer available . Regardless, anyone who purchased it will be able to continue playing it regularly while the developers try to resolve the issue misunderstanding.
In its message to the community, Playstack is keen to let it be known that the problem is not the eShop itself, whose algorithms seem to have simply reacted to the change of classification occurred overnight (previously it was 3+), without any notice given to the studio.
The change occurred because, according to the classification society, Balatro would contain: “gambling-related imagery and material explaining how to gamble.” Anyone who has tried it knows that this is not the case, as you can also verify from our review, but evidently the appearance of the cards deceived the PEGI.
Playstack reiterated that Balatro does not allow gambling and does not encourage the practice, therefore he considers PEGI's decision unfounded. Indeed, even the studio's positions are anti-gambling and the designers have taken every care to ensure that the game does not contain comparable mechanics.
The developers are disappointed by what happened, also because it seems that in October they spoke with PEGI precisely to have them re-calibrate the 18+ classification given previously, obtaining the 3+ rating of a game suitable for everyone. The contents of Balatro have not changed since then.
PlayStack took the opportunity to thank everyone who purchased the game, assuring them that it will do everything it can to get it back on sale.
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