Riot is testing ‘Valorant’ on consoles — but don’t get your hopes up
Valorant is a PC-only game right now, and that won’t change any time soon. However, Riot Games isn’t ruling out the possibility of bringing its new tactical shooter to consoles at some point. In fact, the developer is currently prototyping a console version, executive producer Anna Donlon told GameSpot. But she made it clear that there’s no guarantee that you’ll ever be able to play Valorant on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4 or PS5.
“There’s a way to play this game and there’s a way to experience this game that we’re not entirely sure translates completely to console play,” she said. “If we feel like we can deliver this experience on those platforms, we absolutely will. But we really want Valorant to stand for a certain type of gameplay and a certain type of experience.”
The development team is concerned about anyone feeling as though they have a disadvantage because of the platform they’re playing on. Many first-person and third-person shooters offer controller players aim assist options to compensate for the finer control they’d get with a mouse.
Aim assist is often a bone of contention, though — some top Fortnite players recently raised concerns that aim assist in that game was far too powerful. For Valorant, which places a strong emphasis on aim and mechanical ability, striking the right balance for controller players might prove a problem.
Unless Riot can crack that issue, and any other impediment to delivering an authentic Valorant experience on console, you shouldn’t get your expectations up about playing it on PS4 or Xbox One. Still, the notion that Riot is actively trying to figure out whether console versions will work might give you some hope.
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