The popular RPG 'Baldur's Gate 3' now has a 'Steam Deck native version'; it's not a company-led development project, but the result of a single engineer's passionate work, working overtime.

Baldur's Gate 3, the 2023 Game of the Year award-winning game, is a computer RPG based on the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons , and is available for Windows, macOS, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. A version update on September 23, 2025, made Baldur's Gate 3 natively compatible with Steam Deck on portable gaming PCs running a Linux-based operating system.

Baldur's Gate 3
https://baldursgate3.game/news/hotfix-34-now-live_144

Support - Larian Studios
https://larian.com/support/faqs/steam-deck-native-version_121

someone forgot to mention there's a new native Steam Deck build https://t.co/XoAvjntRuy

— Larian Studios (@larianstudios) September 23, 2025

SteamOS , the operating system behind Steam Deck, is based on Linux, and games developed for Windows run on SteamOS through a compatibility layer called Proton . However, running games through Proton requires additional CPU power.

Hotfix 34, released on September 23, 2025, enabled native support for Steam Deck in Baldur's Gate 3. This allows the game to run directly on SteamOS without going through Proton, reducing CPU usage and memory consumption, as well as stabilizing frame rates, shortening loading times, and improving gameplay.

Hacker News , a social news site, published the following benchmark test results comparing the FPS of the native version and the version run through Proton. According to the results, the native version recorded a higher FPS. This means that the native version achieves smoother gameplay with the same image quality. However, the native version appears to use more CPU, GPU, VRAM, and RAM.

Baldurs Native VS Proton - Flightless Something
https://flightless.yobson.xyz/benchmark/10

Baldurs Native VS Proton Act 3 - Flightless Something
https://flightless.yobson.xyz/benchmark/11

Sven Vinke of Larian Studios, the developer of 'Baldur's Gate 3,' said on X (formerly Twitter), 'The project to make Steam Deck native started out of pure passion. The native build for Steam Deck was started by one engineer who really wanted a smoother gaming experience on Steam Deck. He started working on it outside of work hours.'

The story of how this came to be really is one of true passion. 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… https://t.co/Em7FAv14kj

— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) September 23, 2025

According to Vinke, the completed native build 'feels amazing,' so the decision was made to release it immediately. 'I feel really lucky to have such people on my team,' Vinke said.