Grand strategy ‘Crusader Kings 3’ announces console release date

Crusader Kings 3 has been given a release date for console versions, bringing the complex grand strategy game to new platforms in March.

Paradox Interactive has announced that Crusader Kings 3 is coming to console platforms later this year.

Crusader Kings 3 will launch for Xbox Series X|S and PS5 on March 29, as confirmed by a new trailer that was shared today (January 25) by Paradox.

Within the trailer, Crusader Kings 3 development director Simon Humphreys explains why the grand strategy title is coming to console:

“What makes Crusader Kings fit really well is obviously it’s a huge IP that’s played by millions of people around the world – opening it up to console brings us a whole new audience that don’t have these high end PCs to play the PC version.”

Terry Goodwin, technical director, said that strategy is “not a genre that’s particularly well represented” on console, and acknowledged “a huge challenge” in bringing Crusader Kings 3 to console for this reason.

“The biggest challenge for Crusader Kings 3 is not just the menu and the UI and the controls,” added Humphreys, “it’s the huge amounts of design work and iteration and prototyping…to make sure all of those things work as seamlessly as possible.”

The console “adaptation” has been redesigned to ensure that it can be played with a D-pad rather than a virtual console.

This isn’t the first grand strategy that Paradox has brought to console. Back in 2019, the company brought Stellaris to Xbox platforms.

Elsewhere, there’s more good news for strategy fans. Frost Giant Studios, founded by developers who worked on Starcraft 2 and Warcraft, has raised £18.4million to create an “epic” RTS in Unreal Engine 5. Funders include Riot Games and PUBG publisher Kakao Games.