The Baldur’s Gate franchise has graced consoles before, but don’t expect the third entry to be released on the current-generation PlayStation or Xbox.
In a recent interview with Eurogamer, executive producer David Walgrave suggested that Baldur’s Gate 3 is far too demanding for today’s consoles. While a PS5 or Xbox Series X port is possible, Larian Studios would have to gut the game and dial down its graphics for the current generation.
Eurogamer: “Once it’s done on PC and it does come to thinking about consoles, would that be next-gen?”
Walgrave: “Mmhmm! I don’t think that current-gen consoles would be able to run it. There’s a lot of technical upgrades and updates that we did to our engine, and I don’t know if it would be capable of being able to actually run on those things.”
“Maybe it could run, but then we would have to tone down the textures and this and that and it wouldn’t look as cool anymore.”
Skeptics – and others who don’t think Baldur’s Gate 3 looks all that great – believe Walgrave is full of it, but an Xbox or PS4 port wouldn’t make much sense anyway. That’s because the game is still in heavy development, and the next generation of consoles is right around the corner.
Baldur’s Gate 3 fans who don’t have access to a powerful-enough PC can play the game through Google Stadia. It isn’t clear when that version will be released, but Baldur’s Gate 3 will debut on Steam as an Early Access title later this year.