With PAX East underway, Baldur’s Gate 3 has been the topic of discussion for the better part of this week. It’s set to arrive this year via Google Stadia and Steam Early Access, but what about a potential console release? PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players probably should not get their hopes up. Apparently, it is unlikely current-gen hardware would even be able to run the upcoming Baldur’s Gate entry.
David Walgrave, Executive Producer on Baldur’s Gate 3, told Eurogamer the technical upgrades Larian Studios added to its engine probably wouldn’t bode well for the game’s performance on consoles. According to Walgrave,
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.
Neither Walgrave nor Eurogamer made mention of a potential PlayStation 5 or Xbox One Series X port. So there’s currently no word on whether those consoles’ receiving Baldur’s Gate 3 even counts as a possibility. However, considering Google Stadia will already have the game optimized for play with a controller, it seems logical that Baldur’s Gate 3 PS5 and Xbox Series X could end up happening at some point given that power that each will bring to the table.
Interestingly, Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Editions launched in October 2019 for the PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One. The release of this package came several years after similar remasters hit PC. Maybe there is hope for a console launch of Baldur’s Gate 3 years down the line, after all?
[Source: Eurogamer]
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