Baldur’s Gate 3 Just Went Even Bigger With a Native Steam Deck Port
Larian didn’t need to do this. It did anyway—an above-and-beyond surprise that raises the bar for the entire industry.
Larian is still in that rare studio zone where, years after launch, they keep making a great thing better. Baldur's Gate 3 blew up their profile, and two years of patches later, they just did something most teams never bother with: they made a native version of the game for Steam Deck.
Hotfix #34 is live, and yes, the rat can finally squeak
The latest patch drops a bunch of fixes across all platforms. My favorite: they adjusted audio so a specific Lower City rat actually makes noise now. If you were straining to hear tiny rodent drama before, your moment has arrived.
The big deal: a true Steam Deck build
Up to now, BG3 ran on the Deck through Proton, Valve's compatibility layer that translates most Windows games to play nicely on Linux (the operating system the Deck runs). That setup worked surprisingly well and the game has been a staple on the handheld, though performance could wobble.
Larian just went the extra mile and shipped a native Deck build. That means no translation layer in the middle — the game now speaks the Deck's language directly.
'Baldur's Gate 3 now features a native Steam Deck build! This means the game can now be run natively on the platform, resulting in a more stable framerate, lower loading times, and smoother gameplay.'
- More stable framerate and smoother play on the Deck
- Faster loading
- Lower CPU usage and less memory pressure overall
- Previously ran via Proton; now it's native, which is rare even among Steam Deck Verified games
Wait, so is this a Linux port?
Technically yes — a native Deck build is Linux-native. But here is the inside baseball: Larian is not offering general Linux support for desktop users. This is targeted at the Steam Deck specifically. If you play on a regular Linux PC, don't expect official help if something breaks. Deck owners, though, just got way more than anyone could reasonably expect from a post-launch patch.
Between this and the steady stream of updates more than two years after 1.0, Larian keeps reinforcing why BG3 is still one of the best RPGs you can play right now.