Will Baldur's Gate 3 be coming to Nintendo Switch?

Larian Studio's upcoming Baldur's Gate 3 has plenty of eyes on it. The ambitious RPG experience aims to go above and beyond to raise the bar for the genre to a whole new level. As such, the game has currently been in early access for PC first and foremost to ensure it shines the best it can. However, fans are excited to play the latest in the acclaimed CRPG series on consoles as well.

In fact, the developer has confirmed that it will become available for current-gen consoles soon. But does that include Nintendo Switch, the popular hybrid console?

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Is Baldur's Gate 3 confirmed to receive a Nintendo Switch release as well?

The lineup of platforms that Baldur's Gate 3 is confirmed to release on only includes PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. as of now There is no official confirmation on whether the game will become playable on Nintendo Switch in the future either. This does not mean much since there are plenty of late ports on the platform, such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt from CD Projekt RED.

That said, it is likely the game may never see the light of day on the current-gen Nintendo hybrid portable. Developers from Larian Studio have touched upon how much more expansive Baldur's Gate 3 is from a technical standpoint than the team's previous offerings. This is evident with the massive jump in visual quality and attention to detail that easily rivals modern AAA releases.

The character model quality during cutscenes is incredibly impressive (Image via Larian Studios)

The world of Baldur's Gate 3 is not just denser but several times more complex, with multiple interactions, more features, and so on. As such, it is not hard to see why it would "not be doable on current-gen" tech, as the project's executive producer David Walgrave put it in an interview with Eurogamer. In fact, the game was even considered for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One initially.

However, split-screen multiplayer posed issues from a performance standpoint, especially in the massive, densely packed city of Baldur's Gate. Since co-op is a core aspect of the Baldur's Gate 3 experience, Larian Studios opted to axe those versions. And since those platforms could not run it in its entirety, there would have been little hope for the portable console from Nintendo.

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Does the future hold a different fate for Baldur's Gate 3 on Nintendo?

There is still hope in the future for Larian fans on Nintendo platforms (Image via Larian Studios)

That this could happen is very likely. Larian's previous offering, Divinity Original Sin 2 did get a surprise Nintendo Switch port. It was a massive technical feat despite the compromises. That said, the developers did express how difficult it was to bring such a massive game over to a relatively low-spec system like the Nintendo Switch.

After all, the game was built for PC from the ground up. As such, perhaps they could perform some technical wizardry to make it possible. Or perhaps they may not need to. With the rumored Nintendo Switch successor looming over the horizon, it should make Baldur's Gate 3 feasible.

Even if it is, hypothetically speaking, on par with PS4 in terms of raw numbers, that should be enough for the team to work with. Especially since it is pretty much a given that it would be packing more modern tech than anything the last-gen consoles have due to its inherently next-gen nature. But that's a matter for the future.

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Baldur's Gate 3 comes out of early access on PC on August 3, 2023. The PlayStation 5 version is slated for a September 6, 2023 release.