Baldur's Gate is a role-playing game developed by BioWare and published by Black Isle Studios and Interplay. It came out for Windows in North America on 21 December 1998 and in Europe in January 1999; in Japan Sega published it on 30 January 1999. It was the first game built on BioWare's Infinity Engine, is set in the Forgotten Realms and uses a modified Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition ruleset.
Every background was rendered individually instead of being assembled from tiles, which greatly lengthened development. The project took about 90 man-years on an estimated budget of $1 million. The game went on to win PC Role-Playing Game of the Year from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
The Tales of the Sword Coast expansion followed in 1999, and a Mac version in 2000. In 2012 Beamdog released Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, developed by Overhaul Games, which reached PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch in 2019.1
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Baldur's Gate | Windows | Dec 21, 1998 | Black Isle Studios / Interplay | 1 |
| NA | Baldur's Gate | Mac | Jul 17, 2000 | Graphsim Entertainment | 1 |
| JP | Baldur's Gate | Windows | Jan 30, 1999 | Sega | 1 |
| EU | Baldur's Gate | Windows | January 1999 | Interplay | 1 |
| WW | Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword CoastExpansion pack. | Windows | 1999 | Interplay | 1 |
| WW | Baldur's Gate: Enhanced EditionDeveloped by Overhaul Games; also on Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. Steam and GOG list 16 January 2013 for their PC releases. | Windows | 2012 | Beamdog | 1 |
| WW | Baldur's Gate: Enhanced EditionConsole release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. | Switch | 2019 | Skybound Games | 1 |
Also known as: Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition WW1Baldur's Gate: The Original Saga WW2
Box art by region
NA Baldur's Gate
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: Wikipedia.
Version differences
-
ContentEnhanced Edition
The Enhanced Edition includes Tales of the Sword Coast and adds The Black Pits arena; the new Siege of Dragonspear campaign is sold separately as DLC.2
-
TextEnhanced Edition
The Enhanced Edition is available in 15 languages, among them Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish and Japanese.2
Translations
-
Spanish Official
Beamdog2013Windows · Enhanced EditionReleased · partial
The Enhanced Edition offers Spanish (Spain) text; Steam does not list Spanish voice-over.3
-
Japanese Official
Beamdog2013Windows · Enhanced EditionReleased · partial
The Enhanced Edition offers Japanese text.3
-
Russian Official
Beamdog2013Windows · Enhanced EditionReleased · complete
The Enhanced Edition has Russian text and full Russian voice-over on Steam.3
Where to play legally today
-
GOG Purchase
-
Steam Purchase
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
Windows, Mac, Linux; includes Tales of the Sword Coast
Checked: 2026-10-133store.steampowered.com
How to run it today
Buy Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition on Steam or GOG. It officially supports Windows, Linux and macOS, so no compatibility fixes are needed. Owners of the original 1998 game data can also use GemRB, an open-source reimplementation of BioWare's Infinity Engine.
- Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition on GOG gog.com
- GemRB gemrb.org
Best version
The Enhanced Edition is the easiest way to play today. It bundles the expansion, runs on current Windows, macOS and Linux, and is fully translated into many languages, including Russian.2
Reception
Interplay's internal target was 200,000 units, but Baldur's Gate passed 1 million copies by November 1999 and reached about 2.8 million by 2015. Critics credited it with reviving computer RPGs.1
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
Spotted a mistake? Write to atlas@old-games.net.