Riot Games recently announced the closed beta for Valorant, which leaves fans wondering when the competitive shooter will fully launch on consoles.
Despite being Riot Games’ first foray into the first-person team shooter genre, Valorant became a massive success. Garnering critical and commercial acclaim, the competitive FPS attracts millions of players daily, with the latest estimates placing the number at around 28 million monthly. Such success on PC alone didn’t satisfy Riot Games, so the studio announced an official port of Valorant to consoles.
Valorant will be Riot’s first launch of a mainline game on consoles, so some fans are understandably wary about the console port’s performance and wonder if the typically PC-oriented developers can create a good port.
Riot has not announced the final release date for Valorant’s console launch.
Given the new ground Riot is stepping in, the developer may take time before committing to a final release date for the console port. Valorant will notably have crossplay against other consoles but not against PC players.
VALORANT CONSOLE ANNOUNCE // Gameplay Trailer – VALORANT
Riot states “…fair play is a cornerstone of competitive gaming,” and with the experience PC players have on top of a more efficient control scheme for first-person shooters, the decision makes sense. Although a full launch date is not yet known, a closed Valorant console beta will begin very soon.
The Valorant closed console beta begins on June 14, 2024, for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Since this is Riot’s first major console port, easing console players to the game with a beta makes sense. It allows new players to try out Valorant, and devs can observe and record any kinks in the system missed by internal QA testing. The beta will have limited keys and only be available in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan. Other regions will launch closed beta periods at a later date. Riot will not add competitive queues for Valorant at launch, as the developer will give players a few days to get used to console controls on non-competitive game modes.
Content and purchases remain shared between PC and console accounts. However, console and PC players will have separate servers and rankings, so it will truly be an even battlefield, regardless of experience.
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