While Valorant debuted more than four years ago on PC, fans on the console recently received some positive news about the game’s future. Riot Games confirmed at this year’s Summer Games Fest that the shooter would be making a jump to consoles with a beta phase kicking off on June 14.
Since the console’s beta release, Riot Games has added various updates to elevate the shooter experience. However, with the latest Valorant competitive changes, it’s clear that the game’s console launch is right around the corner.
New Valorant Update Brings Huge Competitive Changes For Console Players
Riot Games has announced a Valorant competitive downtime for PC and console players on July 30, 2024, with an X/Twitter Post. According to the developers, the Competitive queue will be taken down for everyone at 6 AM PT on July 30.
While PC players will be immediately able to jump back into the action, competitive play will be disabled for console gamers till 9 AM PT on August 2, 2024.
Based on Valorant‘s ongoing beta on consoles, alongside disabling competitive queues, Riot Games is also resetting the ranks. Clearly, the developers are making a move to prepare the game for a global release on console as they try to resolve the skill disparity issues plaguing the higher ranks.
While it’s great to see Riot actively monitoring the game’s competitive aspect on console, many in the community got caught off-guard by the announcement.
Others are hoping that Riot Games adds profile verification with the next Valorant update to deal with the smurfing issue that’s been running rampant ever since the console beta release.
Riot Games is also continuing to clean up its console rollout with the Valorant patch 9.02, which brings some much-needed bug fixes and another map for players in the form of Ice Box.
Riot is also ramping up its behavior intervention system to dish out harsher penalties on players who abuse coms on consoles. Let’s hope Riot Games carries this momentum and finally gives us a polished Valorant experience on consoles.
When is Valorant Releasing on Consoles?
Since its release, Valorant has proven to be one of the most popular games in the world. With millions of active players enjoying the game daily, it has grown to the point where it’s the first step for many into the FPS genre. The game’s beta release on Xbox and PS5 has proven to be quite successful, but players are itching to know about its full release.
Riot Games has already confirmed that the Valorant console port will be fully released on Xbox Series S/X and PS5 by the end of 2024. Until that, players can only play the shooter through a Limited Beta.
However, it’s crucial to keep in mind that the beta is invite-only and not a fully open one. To get an invite, you must create a Riot account, sign up, and cross your fingers that a key arrives in your inbox.
If you do get lucky enough to get early access to Valorant on your console, you’ll also be able to invite up to five friends to join you!
With that said, do you agree with Riot’s decision to reset ranks in Valorant competitive on console? If so, let us know in the comments.
