Valorant: Is there a Console and Mobile release in the near future?

Riot Games’ new tactical, first-person shooter game Valorant, has undoubtedly become one of the most popular FPS experiences in a very long time.

Not only did it break some Twitch streaming records over the course of it’s closed beta, but professional esports orgs have already started filling out their Valorant rosters with some very big names. Teams like T1 have been signing players even before the closed beta was officially out, and it’s rather surprising just how popular this game has become in such a short time.

And now, with Riot finally announcing the official launch date for the game, which is the 2nd of June, many FPS fans across the world are asking if Valorant would also have a release on the PS4, Xbox One and the mobile platforms after it is out on PC.

To answer that question, let's take a trip back to a Tweet made by Valorant Leaks on the 3rd of May.

It looks like Valorant is coming to IOS and Android 👀 pic.twitter.com/G0h95qjiRD
— Valorant Leaks (@ValorantLeaked) May 3, 2020

Expand Tweet

According to the miner (who has data-mined the game’s code), there are hints at new platform releases in the game that include PS4, iOS,and Android.

Would Valorant have a PS4 release?

In the said tweet, although there were no direct references to PS4, Valorant Leaks did reply to one of the comments in the post by saying that:

"From what I found in the strings, I found one for PS4."

This is quite a confirmatory statement. We have a strong feeling that Valorant would be arriving on the PlayStation platform rather soon. However, it might not get a release for PS4 and completely skip a generation before coming out for PS5.

A console release is going to be a new frontier for Riot Games as they’re not at all known on that platform. It was only recently that they started making a name on the mobile platform by releasing games like Teamfight Tactics and Legends of Runeterra for iOS and Android.

With a console release, Valorant would be competing head to head with Overwatch and Apex legends. However, in this regard, CS: GO is not something that Riot Games need to worry about.

Given the growing popularity of Valorant, it won't be a surprise if console fans would want to have their hands on the game as soon as possible. Not everyone is a PC gamer, and with what is revealed in the leaks, it seems that Riot Games would be catering to the desires of multiple player bases.

Would Valorant release in XBOX One as well?

Though not much was revealed in the leak about Valorant's XBOX One release, we still think that the game would be launched on the platform if there is at all a console launch in the making.

The only possibility of Valorant not having an XBOX release would be if Riot Games strikes an exclusivity deal with Sony.

If Valorant is out on XBOX One, you would be able to play it in the XBOX Series X as well. As the next-gen console comes with full backward compatibility, you would be able to enjoy the Valorant game on both the machines.

What about Valorant's iOS and Android release?

As we have mentioned before, with Teamfight Tactics and Legends of Runeterra, Riot Games has already entered the iOS and Android scene. So we won’t be all that perplexed if they wish to introduce Valorant in the platform as well, because the leaks in this regard suggest as much.

The photos in the Twitter post of Valorant Leaks directly mention about these platforms. Thus a mobile version release may not be all that far in coming. It is likely to come after the PC release but before the game gets released on console.

The mobile gaming platform has been growing exponentially. In countries like India and Japan, mobile phones are indeed the most popular gaming devices. And this is precisely why games like PUBG Mobile, Fortnite and Free Fire are so popular.

So with Riot Games’ entry into iOS and Android, the company would be looking to make Valorant popular on the broadest platform possible.

However, on the mobile platforms, there are going to be a lot more hurdles for Riot than on the other platforms. Apart from getting stiff competition from the above mentioned popular mobile games, Riot Games would also have to deal with the hacker problem, which is one of the biggest issues that the mobile gaming industry faces right now.

Unlike the console base, where the device itself has a lot of inbuilt anti-cheat softwares, the iOS and Android devices don’t have any of the like. Riot Games’ biggest challenge in this regard would be to evolve their anti-cheat Vanguard from the PC base to the mobile and make it compatible for these handheld devices.

Edited by Bhargav