With Valorant having taken off since its release in summer of 2020, development and maintenance on the title is clearly a huge priority for developer Riot Games. This makes the recent departure of Game Director Joe Ziegler all the more impactful as Valorant continues to attract newcomers and introduce new content to keep current players coming back to the game.
It should be noted the Ziegler leaving the Valorant development team is not an indication of the director parting ways with Riot Games completely, but instead is related to a new project being started. Additionally, the future development won't be going without leadership, as Ziegler named a successor as Game Director in the official statement announcing the change in developers.
In a statement posted to the official Valorant blog, Ziegler comments on having spent the last eight years working as Game Director on the game and leaving with a "heart full of gratitude" for the rest of the team and player community. This post also gives high praise to Sr. Director Andy Ho, who Ziegler has named as the successor to take over the title of Game Director for the Valorant team as development continues forward. Considering both this high point of praise and Ho's previous work on the game, fans should be well assured that the direction moving forward will still deliver a familiar experience to what players have grown accustomed to.
Something that might be even more interesting to fans of both Riot Games and Valorant is that Ziegler also mentions in the farewell post the reason for the departure from the team. Ziegler will reportedly be working on something new for Riot Games, though the developer did not elaborate on what this new project might be or whether or not it might be related to any other titles. With Riot Games having several projects in the works, from games in new genres, shows like Arcane for the developer's most popular IPs, the sky is the limit for what this could be refering to.
Hopefully, this new project will be able to benefit from Ziegler's passion and dedicated work the way Valorant has developed and improved with new agents like Chamber. Furthermore, with much of the remaining management being veterans for the development of Valorant, Riot Games' premier FPS title is still in good hands as the top brass shifts around. However, this announcement also leaves fans speculating on what Riot Games might have planned that is going to require Ziegler's skillset to start working on this new project.
Valorant is available now for PC.
Source: Riot Games