“Geralt is in Balatro now,” we wrote yesterday following the announcement of the Friends of Jimbo replace, an enormous beauty crossover that introduced The Witcher 3, Dave the Diver, Among Us, and Vampire Survivors into the sport. But Geralt in Balatro—how does one thing like that even occur? It seems that in case you make a very cool recreation that everybody loves, some individuals are simply going to need to work with you—and lots of of us at CD Projekt are massive Balatro followers.
“I usually evangelize video video games at work,” CD Projekt’s world PR director Radek Grabowski tweeted (through GamesRadar). “I did it with Balatro, getting many colleagues onboard, together with the wonderful of us who run CDPR’s partnerships. Meanwhile, a buddy from Playstack DM’d me an thought, which later grew to become Friends of Jimbo. Perfect timing—the remaining is historical past.”
Grabowski additionally revealed that Balatro’s Witcher 3 card backs had been created by CD Projekt artist Olgierd Ciszak, who’s beforehand labored on Gwent, Thronebreaker, and Cyberpunk 2077.
The Witcher playing cards for Balatro had been created in-house by one in all CD PROJEKT RED’s gifted artists, Olgierd Ciszak. ✨ They’re true gems, and I really like them. pic.twitter.com/tV8M1I1J0LAugust 27, 2024
“Working on this was a exceptional expertise,” Grabowski tweeted. “Having achieved video video games PR for greater than 10 years and seeing this collaboration come to fruition was actually inspiring. Five gaming corporations working towards the identical aim, pushed by ardour and companionship. Thank you, mates!”
Playstack PR supervisor Wout van Halderen, who could or could not have been the buddy Grabowski talked about, described the collaboration as “a profession spotlight.”
“The trade is likely to be aggressive, however behind all of it are simply individuals who love video games and that shared ardour is what makes a majority of these collaborations attainable,” van Halderen tweeted.
Poncle lead partnership supervisor Geo Morgan additionally threw a shout-out to all concerned, saying “it has been actually beautiful.” Grabowski appeared to agree.
It is gorgeous, is not it? It’s additionally apparently simply the beginning: Balatro writer Playstack mentioned the Friends of Jimbo replace is simply the primary in a deliberate sequence of beauty crossovers that can see extra playing cards launched later this yr. There’s additionally yet another Balatro announcement nonetheless to return of the three that had been promised earlier in August, following the tease of a significant gameplay replace for Balatro coming in 2025 and, in fact, the Friends of Jimbo replace—we’ll let once we know.
