“That is bizarre, is not it?” asks Remaining Fantasy 16 actor Ben Starr, sporting full clown apparel and accepting an award for Balatro, a recreation he had nothing to do with except for showing in an commercial. And sure, Ben and pricey readers, it’s bizarre, so let me simply clarify what’s taking place right here.
Properly, really, that is just about precisely what’s taking place. Starr, who performed Jimbo the clown in that weird Balatro live-action trailer, is accepting the roguelike’s award for Greatest Debut Indie on the 2025 BAFTA Recreation Awards. “For these of you who aren’t chronically on-line, this is perhaps a reasonably complicated and, at first look, suspiciously arousing second,” Starr says.
It is unclear why Starr is accepting the award and never LocalThunk, the developer liable for Balatro, however Starr’s speech provides us a presumably insincere clarification in his admittedly very humorous acceptance speech. Simply one other one for the pile.
“So what if my solely contribution to Balatro was that trailer and a little bit of sucking on a banana for a couple of seconds? However I ask you this: is not promoting stuff good? What’s artwork in 2025 if not a thinly veiled vessel of ruthless business self curiosity by means of which wealthy folks attempt to make much more cash?
“And I can say, having met him personally, LocalThunk is actually wealthy now. He has footwear fabricated from gold and he thanks you for making him that means. He says right here on the backside, he needs he might thank extra folks, but when he is being trustworthy, it was simply him who made it, everybody else is a freeloader, particularly you [publisher] Playstack. Oh, and play extra impartial video games like Animal Properly. They’re the lifeblood of this business, and so they deserve your respect.”
“That is WEIRD!” – Balatro Wins Debut Recreation at #BAFTAGamesAwards 🤡 pic.twitter.com/FfGBN6kdXFApril 8, 2025
This jogs my memory of a bizarre, internet-poisoned, video gamey spin on that scene in Iron Man the place Obadiah Stane accepts an award for Tony Stark as a result of Tony was too busy partying to attend the awards ceremony. Besides right here we do not really know the actual cause the recipient wasn’t current, though presumably it is for a way more boring, strange cause like scheduling conflicts.
