Balatro’s The Witcher 3 Feature Is Thanks To CD Projekt Red Staff Who Love The Game

The Witcher 3 x Balatro was a collaboration no one would have imagined to come, and yet here it is as a pleasant surprise—and it’s all thanks to CD Projekt Red’s global PR director, Radek Grabowski, who loved the roguelike deck builder so much that he got “many colleagues onboard” the hype train, “including the amazing folks who run CDPR’s partnerships.” In an X (Twitter) post, Grabowski shared that he often praises video games at work, and Balatro was no exception. This was supported by the company’s PR representative Ola Sondej, who shared in a quote-retweet to PC Gamer’s article that in every meeting, “he'd start with "YOU PLAYED BALATRO YET???" Other CP Projekt employees began to love the game, just in time as one of Grabowski’s friends from Playstack (Balatro’s publisher) messaged him an idea, later becoming the free collaboration update Friends of Jimbo. And the rest, as they say, is history.

CD Projekt Red was even hands-on with the partnership, as the card designs for The Witcher 3 in-game were created in-house by CD Projekt Red artist Olgierd Ciszak. Based on the trailer, the King, Queen, and Jack cards feature Geralt, Yennefer, and Dandelion or Jaskier respectively.