At Summer Game Fest 2024, Riot Games announced that its popular free-to-play 5v5 competitive first-person shooter game VALORANT will soon be available on consoles. A limited beta is set to kick off on June 12 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X players living in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, and Japan, with more regions possibly rolling out later.
Arnar Gylfason, Production Director of VALORANT at Riot Games, stated:
When exploring whether to bring VALORANT to additional platforms, we knew we had to be able to offer the same uncompromising, competitive experience that we’ve provided to PC players for years: a precise, team-based, tactical shooter. We were adamant that VALORANT’s core, competitive gameplay must feel natural on a controller; and – if we couldn’t deliver on that gameplay promise – we had to be prepared to walk away from it. We hope we nailed it, but ultimately, our players will have the final say.
Riot Games confirmed that due to the game’s focus on competitive gameplay, there will be no cross-play with the existing PC version launched in June 2020. However, all players will have a connected, shared inventory and gameplay progression tied to their VALORANT account. PC and console players will receive simultaneous platform releases of all live patch balances, new agents, maps, premium content, and additional live service features.
In a new developer diary, Riot talked about the process of bringing the game to consoles and ensuring it would feel right with a controller:
VALORANT is a very mouse-focused game. It requires a lot of dexterity. One of the things we were really focused on when we were getting the game to feel really good on the controller was to manage the limitations of your trying to move through the environment with your right stick as fast as you can, but you also need to be hyper-precise.
Being able to do both things with one stick is a very challenging problem. When we first got our hands on VALORANT on console, it was a much different experience than we have right now. It was a bit clunky. We needed something to make it easier for players to slow down and hone in on gunfights when they need to. I think our switch to what we call a focus mode was a big turning point for us.
It’s kind of the button you press before you take a fight. Your sensitivity drops down, you zoom in, you become precise. You should feel like you’re about to be accurate when you’re trying to hit the really long range shot.
