Image credit: Paradox
Crusader Kings 3, the ever-expanding medieval murder simulator, might look like the kind of game that could only ever work on PC, with its intricate mechanics and need for constant micromanagement. The brainiacs over at Paradox Interactive have been plugging away at bringing the full experience to consoles, however, and they’ve just released a doozy of an expansion.
Roads to Power was released to CK3 console players on May 11, adding some pretty amazing changes to the game. As well as completely overhauling the bureaucracy and power of the Byzantine Empire, adding whole new ways to govern, it also added the ability to completely abandon your seat as a landed ruler and go adventuring. Adapting these additions wasn’t easy, as the Paradox team told Kyusai.
A Byzantine Process
According to the Paradox team, “the biggest challenge” when adapting Roads to Power to consoles was “Administrative Government”. This is because “it involves a huge number of small interactions – the Influence system, appointing governors, managing personal estates, and much more.”
The main issue here is the same one that plagues any strategy game when coming to a console – the interface. Sometimes games like Crusader Kings 3 have more in common with spreadsheets than they do other kinds of games, which can lead to console gamers having to “end up fighting the menus instead of playing the game”.
Paradox approached this by using “proven interaction patterns” and “even created several additional windows that don’t exist in the PC version”. Paradox will often need to create solutions to problems that don’t exist on the PC version yet, meaning that some features actually arrive on console first.
The ability to automate your armies, for example, was only a recent addition to the PC release of Crusader Kings 3; it has “been a feature for console players since the game launched on console in 2022”. Necessity leads to innovation, leading to a moment where the “PC and console versions of Crusader Kings 3 benefit from each other and can improve the experience for players of each version.”
Same game, different expectations
Though they’re both playing the same game and benefit from the developments on both versions, Crusader Kings 3’s audiences are naturally very different in the way they interact with the game. Paradox, however, believes that one of the key similarities between the audiences is “the enthusiasm”.
Although “console development necessarily lags behind the PC development”, console players are still keeping up with every new announcement and update, and are “very aware of what is happening in the computer space”. This means that there’s a “little bit of impatience in waiting for whatever is coming next”.
Unlike the PC community, however, they are “less likely to engage in the modding community” than their PC counterparts, as you might expect. The developments from modding “never figure into their expectations for the game”, but also mean they’re purely reliant on Paradox to get new content for Crusader Kings 3.
The process of adapting from PC to console “sounds so mechanical but requires a strong understanding of how other console games work.” There are a lot of questions that mean more focus than is needed on the PC versions, such as “Which new systems are most likely to be used? Where can we automate? How should we organize decisions?”
Paradox has to take up a different approach, influenced by “how console gamers think”, and the team is often left to work things out without an already trodden path ahead of them to emulate. “There aren’t a lot of games like Crusader Kings on consoles, so it can be challenging to draw the right lessons.”
There’s always something new to look forward to with Crusader Kings 3. Paradox recently announced a new wave of DLC for the PC release, but there are other steps for the console release first. The China-focused All Under Heaven looms over the console release, as “from the technical standpoint, it would significantly increase title frame times and memory footprint on consoles.”
Though the team “haven’t announced anything yet regarding future DLC”, they’ve “accounted for these challenges while planning our All Under Heaven porting roadmap.” Even if nothing has been confirmed, Paradox thinks it’s “important to be aware of coming challenges.”
You can see the fruit of their hard work with the Roads to Power DLC for Crusader Kings 3, now released for consoles.
FAQs
Paradox has just released Roads to Power, a major expansion focusing on the Byzantine Empire and adventurers, on May 11.
Paradox has announced By God Alone, a core expansion focused on overhauling religion and allowing the player to play theocracies, out in Q3 of 2026.
Nothing can last forever, and Crusader Kings 3 only lets you play up until 1453. However, you can turn this option off if you really want to keep the world in a form of medieval stasis forever.
