In light of recent news that Valve is making Counter-Strike 2, players on the other side of the FPS craze have been wondering what’s going on with Riot and their CS-like shooter Valorant. While the game has seen growth ever since its release in 2020, a ton of casual players cannot access the game due to its being locked to PC only. Counter-Strike players have gotten used to their game being a PC exclusive. Still, Valorant’s similarity to other hero shooters like Overwatch (readily available on both XBOX and PlayStation) has gotten the fans anxious for a potential console port.
Consoles themselves are a much more accessible way of playing video games. Their plug-and-play nature and the lack of hassling around all the options make them perfect for casual gamers to enjoy. Combine this with Valorant’s increasing popularity, and you’ve got a well-sized portion of fans screaming for a Console release. Let’s take a look at what’s going on with Valorant’s console port.
What you can expect:
- Is Valorant Coming to Consoles at all?
- When will that be happening?
- What to do in the meantime.
Is Valorant on Consoles Confirmed?
Yes. What has previously been only speculation and assumptions, primarily derived from job listings that Riot has posted online, has now been officially confirmed. In January of 2023, developers from Riot Games officially commented on the development process of Valorant for consoles and their plans for the game in general.
They explained that the development of Valorant for consoles is well underway, but it’s been going way slower than they or the players have anticipated. You see, the engine used for Valorant is the same one League of Legends uses, meaning it’s over a decade old. It predates the current generation of consoles by over a decade, and developing a console port on it is challenging. While it may take a while for the game to drop on console hardware, we at least know that it will happen at some point.
When Is It Coming?
Previous predictions believed the port might be coming in 2022. But that mark was missed by a long shot. We’re skeptical that it’ll even come in 2023. One could only hope. We predict that Valorant will release in early 2024, if not during this year’s holiday season. Riot’s experience with releasing on other platforms is very green. They’ve only had their first shot at it with Valorant releasing on Steam and Epic Games alongside their proprietary client.
Plus, they’ve hired a ton of new talent recently to help develop the game’s console port. It’ll probably take them a bit to get used to their new environments and try to adapt a decade-old engine to brand-new hardware and architecture.
What You Could Do In The Meantime
I’ll probably spend my entire Summer playing Counter-Strike 2. I like Consoles, but I don’t see them as suitable for shooters, as the precision of a keyboard and mouse is beyond any controller out there. Still, if you only have access to a console, you might try the following few games before Valorant finally drops.
Overwatch 2 is the alternative to Valorant on consoles. It may focus less on the shooting side of things, but the hero/ability aspect is nigh identical. All the game modes are fun, they never get boring, and there’s even a ranked option for you to annoy yourselves in the meantime.
There’s also the option of playing Activision’s latest Warzone 2. This game is much different than Valorant or Overwatch as it focuses on military realism and has no magic. Nevertheless, it’s a fantastic shooter, and the battle-royale mode still hasn’t gone stale even so many years down the line. Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer is also a good idea if battle-royale isn’t your cup of tea. Arena shooters are rare these days, and Call of Duty has managed its relevancy by reshaping how the concept functions. MW2 is a fantastic game to pick up and play to calm your agitated, waiting nerves. But the game will probably just make you mad anyway.
Conclusion
So, Valorant is coming over to consoles. We just don’t know precisely when. Predictions range from this year to the next, and only Riot has that information. With how development has been proceeding and Riot’s confirmation of the port, we may see Valorant drop on consoles sooner rather than later. We can kill that waiting time by playing some other excellent games, or maybe we should pick up a book for once. Yeah, we’ll stick to playing, I think.
