The Xbox Gamescom stream packed in a decent amount of new information about Microsoft’s upcoming software lineup, as well as updates on third-party games. One of the smaller, but still significant, announcements concerns the award-winning Crusader Kings 3, the latest entry of Paradox Interactive’s strategy franchise. While the series has traditionally been featured on PC, it’ll soon be coming to consoles too.
During the stream, Paradox Interactive revealed that Crusader Kings 3 will be making its way to the Xbox Series X and PS5 but didn’t reveal a specific release date. However, the ports will have some special features depending on the platform that players go with. For instance, PS5 players will apparently be able to feel stressful situations with the DualSense controller, while Xbox players will have easy access to YouTube tutorial videos.
Crusader Kings 3 does have a notoriously complex menu system to navigate around, one that emphasizes mouse and keyboard controls. Translating that system to a controller in an intuitive way seems like it will be a big challenge, but it certainly won’t be the first time that a dense strategy game has made its way to consoles. It is easy to see how Xbox’s YouTube integration could come in handy, though.
Those interested in playing Crusader Kings 3 on the Xbox Series X will be able to access it through Xbox Game Pass on launch day. The PC version of Crusader Kings 3 has also been featured on the service, so anyone with both platforms can start learning the ropes now to prepare for the console launch. It’s hard to gauge whether or not the two versions of the game will be of equal quality, but it is an area where a Game Pass subscription comes in handy.
The next-gen features may end up defining how well Crusader Kings 3 performs on consoles. The DualSense is perhaps the biggest innovation that the PS5 brings to the table, and using it to “feel” a stressful situation is an interesting way to put it to use. For the most part, the DualSense’s haptic feedback has been used to convey environmental and combat effects, but applying it to an emotion could open many new pathways for developers.
The announcement doesn’t clarify if PS5 players will have easy access to the YouTube tutorials, though, which is a bit strange. The PS5 has integrated guides for certain games, so it’s possible that those will be used instead, but fans will have to wait for clarification.
Crusader Kings 3 is available now on PC. PS5 and Xbox Series X ports are in development.