If he’s a YouTuber and it’s a work expense I’d think the videos he made on it more than offset the cost, pretty sure that’s how it works with the gacha creators that spend $200K on genshin impact
It’s not even a good game. It’s not significantly improved from previous titles why people paying microtransactions for this let alone buying the game at all
It’s him, John Microtransaction.
If you think $32k is so much to spend on MTX to call him John Microtransaction I’m sorry to say that he’s probably still just a medium sized fish.
Hey, it’s not the size of the transaction that matters, but how John uses it.
I bought 2k21 as my first sports game in a long time. I never knew how bad they got , I just wanna hoop.
Numb-nuts like these people are why every game is riddled with microtransactions
Who I avoid these types of games. It’s mostly about smaller studios these days who make the good games.
Yup. Sometimes larger studios make a good game, but most of the games I play are from indies or smaller AA studios.
We should request/make new gaming categories.
Casual, for moms and aunts.
Classic, for gamers, us, dedicated to games, sitting on forums, knowing the market and following “and remember - no preorders” like rules.
Gacha, for streamers.
Milk farms, for rich who don’t know what do to with monies, so they can spend $32000 per game ez.
Everyone gets something, and we will know to stay away from other categories.
./s just in case.
I only pre-order from one company. From software. I’ve got hundreds of hours into most of their games, just not bloodborne since I don’t own a ps.
Where is the sarcasm?
He had me until the /s, honestly. Sounded like a not-so-bad idea.
These games are designed to take advantage of addicts. The fact that you don’t know how much it will cost to get what you want, the fact that there is no limit on how much you can spend, is a feature.
addicts and/or people who have more money than they know what to do with.
Usually they don’t have more money than they know what to do with, what money have have gets funnelled into their addiction, the rest becomes debt.
hence “and/or”
I wonder if someone spent even more on some random Gacha Game.
One streamer dropped over $100k on Diablo Immortal when it released. His gear was leveled so high, he couldn’t match against anyone else in pvp.
https://gamerant.com/diablo-immortal-100000-cant-get-into-matches/
Wtf
They should be forced to reimburse. This is beyond predatory.
what’s fucking sad is I don’t think this guy even realizes he has a problem.
One things for sure, I will not spend this much again, because you don’t get rewarded for it. As much as I spent, I should have everything in the game, but it’s not even close.
That’s what you say when you’ve spent like $100. hell maybe even $1000. But $32k??? This is so far beyond being not “rewarded for it”.
This is disgusting.
True
Don’t think of this as an individual making stupid choices with a game. Think of this as a game with thousands of players designed to target and take advantage of the neuro-divergent or those susceptible to problem gambling.
Micro-tranactions are a predatory gambling mechanic and this person was robbed of this money.
Are ya winning, son?
Hopefully he is. I mean, that’s an awful lot of money to spend to not win.
This question no longer needs to be asked.
No. No he’s not.
Nobody is winning anymore.
He may break even if his content generates enough income. I almost applaud him for the effort, because publishers aren’t going to be straightforward with the amount you’d need to spend for a completionist. This is probably the only way to shed light on the problem, even if that wasn’t his intent.
What’s worse is that despite him spending $32,000, he’s still not obtained all of the best cards in the game.
This is ok, but balatro is gambling.
NBA 2K26 also releases on Setpember 5, 2025, which will make all of his purchases pretty useless if he was to move on to the next game.
bruh
It’s because Balatro and small indies that catch fire threaten the bloated dinosaurs that are the AAA franchises.
No. It is because Balatro actually had playing cards and pretended it was poker. Its similar to how so many older games could have your character popping meth near constantly but it is fine because it isn’t tobacco.
That said: I really do wish we would have a proper reckoning. I love Balatro. It very much takes the skinner box and slot machine mechanics to an all new level. So does Vampire Survivors. And if you ask most millennial gamers, we’ll have stories about how we almost flunked out of college because of Diablo or WoW and the like.
The gacha games and ultimate team and all that very much exploit the same concepts but with a goal of milking every single penny out of their consumerbase. But time is often just as important (and most of said milking comes from people realizing they have no time to spare) and it is important people realize that.
It is because Balatro actually had playing cards and pretended it was poker.
Playing cards != gambling
Poker != gambling
Its similar to how so many older games could have your character popping meth near constantly but it is fine because it isn’t tobacco.
What kinda games are you referring to here?
I think that’s a bit farfetched. I don’t think any AAA dinosaur feels threatened by Balatro, and if we talk specifically about sports games Balatro is not a threat because that genre has formed its own thick bubble that Balatro could never penetrate.
The more obvious reason is probably true, lawmakers are simply too stupid to tell the difference between using gambling motiffs and actual gambling.
“We’ve spent 30 years underperforming and manipulating our customers to get where we are today! We’re not about to let some noob take a slice of our pie just because they came up with this wacky idea of a ‘Fun game that’s reasonably priced!’”
