During our community night game we got to discussing the upcoming release of Crusader Kings III, the highly anticipated sequel to one of the most popular strategy games ever made, due to release on September 1, 2020 so I decided to look at all of the ways you can play or buy Crusader Kings III on release so our community can choose the way that’s right for them.
Option 1 – Play on XBOX Game Pass for PC
Those of you paying attention may have noticed that I said play or buy in the opening paragraph and that’s because the first option is not to buy Crusader Kings III but to play it using Microsoft’s great value XBOX Game Pass for PC or XBOX Game Pass Ultimate options. There are lots of offers around to trial the game pass for a period for £1/$1/€1 so if you want to give Crusader Kings III a go without committing to buying the full game, if you can’t see yourself playing more than a few hours or if you, like me, are already a game pass subscriber then this may well be the option that makes the most sense for you.
For those that aren’t familiar with Microsoft’s XBOX Game Pass offering it essentially works very similarly to a “Netflix” for games with a growing list of games all available to play as long as your subscription to the service is active. Games are launched through the Xbox app for Windows 10 PC and, like Netflix, the title in the game pass can change over time so if you are in love with a game and want to play it for ever more it is still worth buying the game to own it.
That being said the offer is really tempting with access to over 100 high-quality PC games, a commitment from Microsoft to include all their new first party titles and a growing library of third party titles with the PC only game pass currently running at £3.99/$4.99 or your local equivalent and the Game Pass Ultimate starting from £10.99/$14.99 a month which includes access to Game Pass XBOX titles and mobile gaming included (from September 15, 2020).
Option 2 – Buy Crusader Kings III
For those of you have have decided to take the plunge and buy Crusader Kings III outright then you have a couple of options in terms of versions available and several stores you can buy the game from.
As far as I can tell all the stores selling Crusader Kings III on pre-order are offering the Garments Of The Holy Roman Empire as a pre-order bonus but it’s not entirely clear on some store fronts.
| Crusader Kings III | Crusader Kings III: Royal Edition |
|---|---|
| – Main Game – Garments Of The Holy Roman Empire (Pre-Order Bonus) | Main Game Garments Of The Holy Roman Empire (Pre-Order Bonus) Expansion Pass: – Fashion of the Abbasid Court (Available day 1) – First Flavor Pack – First Major Expansion – Second Flavor Pack |
| List Price (Taken from Paradox Plaza) | List Price (Taken from Paradox Plaza) |
| £41.99 / €49.99 / $49.99 USD / $56.99 CAD | £57.99 / €74.99 / $74.99 USD / $85.99 CAD |
Standard Edition
There were a couple of interesting minor differences in price, for example the Microsoft UK store listing for £41.74 (?) but all of the major stores seem to be sticking to the list price. If you are a Humble Choice Member you do get an 8% discount on the list price.
Crusader Kings III on Humble Store (Partner Link)
This is for the Steam version of the game for PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac and Linux. Up To 8% Discount for Humble Choice Members.
Crusader Kings III on Microsoft Store
This is for the Microsoft Store version of the game for PC (Microsoft Windows)
Crusader Kings III on Paradox Plaza (Publishers Store)
This is for the Steam version of the game for PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac and Linux.
Crusader Kings III on Steam Store
This is for the Steam version of the game for PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac and Linux.
Royal Edition
Crusader Kings III: Royal Edition on Humble Store (Partner Link)
This is for the Steam version of the game for PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac and Linux. Up To 8% Discount for Humble Choice Members.
Crusader Kings III: Royal Edition on Microsoft Store
This is for the Microsoft Store version of the game for PC (Microsoft Windows)
Crusader Kings III: Royal Edition on Paradox Plaza (Publishers Store)
This is for the Steam version of the game for PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac and Linux.
Crusader Kings III: Royal Edition on Steam Store
This is for the Steam version of the game for PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac and Linux.
What’s In Crusader Kings III: Garments of the Holy Roman Empire?
Important Information for Australian Buyers
According to a note on Paradox website the sales of CK3 in Australia are currently halted as they are “Investigating matters having to do with age ratings.” Paradox go on to say “We’re working on resolving this as soon as possible and Paradox will honor already placed pre-orders.“
Crusader Kings III Trailers
System Requirements
As with all new games you can be forgiven for worrying about the minimum requirement required to play Crusader Kings 3 however the minimum specifications here look pretty reasonable though the recommended do suggest a current generation graphics card for PC. On all platforms Crusader Kings 3 requires a 64-Bit Processor and Operating System.
Windows
Minimum
Operating System: Windows® 8.1 64 bit / Windows® 10 Home 64 bit
Processor: Intel® Core™ i3-2120 / AMD® FX 6350
RAM: 6 GB RAM
Graphics Card: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 460 (1GB) / AMD® Radeon™ HD 7870 (2GB) / Intel® Iris Pro™ 580 / Intel® Iris® Plus G7 / AMD® Radeon™ Vega 11
Hard Drive: 8 GB available space
Recommended
Operating System: Windows® 10 Home 64 bit
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-4670K / AMD® Ryzen™ 5 2400G
RAM: 8 GB RAM
Graphics Card: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 1650 (4GB) / AMD® Radeon™ R9 390X (8GB)
Hard Drive: 8 GB available space
Mac
Minimum
Operating System: Mojave (MAC OS X 10.14)
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-7820HQ
RAM: 12 GB RAM
Graphics Card: AMD® Radeon™ PRO 560 (4 GB)
Hard Drive: 8 GB available space
Recommended
Operating System: Mojave (MAC OS X 10.14)
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-7600K
RAM: 16 GB RAM
Graphics Card: AMD® Radeon™ PRO 580 (8GB)
Hard Drive: 8 GB available space
Linux
Minimum
Operating System: Ubuntu 18.04
Processor: Intel® Core™ i3-2120 / AMD® FX 6350
RAM: 4 GB RAM
Graphics Card: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 460 (1GB) / AMD® Radeon™ HD 7870 (2GB) / Intel® Iris Pro™ 580 / Intel® Iris® Plus G7 / AMD® Radeon™ Vega 11
Hard Drive: 8 GB available space
Recommended
Operating System: Ubuntu 18.04
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-4670K / AMD® Ryzen™ 5 2400G
RAM: 8 GB RAM
Graphics Card: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 1650 (4GB) / AMD® Radeon™ R9 390X (8GB)
Hard Drive: 8 GB available space
What Do You Think?
So we’ve run through the options here but I’d love to here what you think, will you be buying Crusader Kings III on release, pre-ordering it, playing on game pass or waiting until the reviews start to roll in to make a decision? Let me know in the comments below or head on over to our Community Discord and chat with our fantastic community about it.
© 2020 published by Paradox Interactive AB, CRUSADER KINGS and PARADOX INTERACTIVE are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Paradox Interactive AB in Europe, the U.S., and other countries. All other trademarks, logos, and copyrights are the property of their respective owners.
