One developer fixed Baldur's Gate 3 on Steam Deck in his free time

The hit title Baldur's Gate 3 from Larian Studios is now natively running on Valve's Steam Deck thanks to a single Larian Studios developer who wasn't happy with the performance on the handheld console.

Baldur's Gate 3, while being playable on the Steam Deck, was taking advantage of the Proton compatibility layer on the console, which, for those who don't know, enables Windows games to work with the Linux-based SteamOS. However, since there is now an additional software layer between the game and the operating system, performance takes a hit as the CPU within the device now needs to run both. To remedy this problem, developers typically design a game to run natively on the intended operating system of the platform, and that is what a single Larian Studios developer initiated.

Larian boss Swen Vincke said, "The Steam Deck native build was initiated by a single engineer who really wanted a smoother version of the game on Steam Deck and so he started working on it after hours. When we tried it out, we were all surprised by how good it felt and so it didn't take much to convince us to put our shoulders behind it and get it released."

"It's this type of pure passion for their craft that makes me fall in love with my developers over and over again. Considering myself very lucky to have people like him on my team. Try it out!" added Vincke

The native support for Baldur's Gate 3 on Steam Deck arrives in hotfix 34, and will introduce an improved framerate, lower loading times, and smoother gameplay.