Valorant dataminers have deduced that the popular tactical shooter might be making the jump to consoles soon. Riot Games has commented on such a possibility before, and it appears it's finally coming to fruition.
Developed by Riot Games, Valorant was released as a Windows exclusive in mid-2020. It is a free-to-play first-person multiplayer shooter, noted for taking several pages out of Counter-Strike's book. While it has garnered some criticism for the amount of toxicity within its community as well as the instability in its anti-cheating software, Valorant has been mostly well-received, garnering the second-highest number of concurrent Twitch viewers for any video game, and winning Best Esports Game at last year's Game Awards. Its Discord server is also the second-largest gaming community (and the fifth-largest community overall) on the platform as of May 2023.
As reported by Valorant dataminer @valohabercisi, Riot Games is planning to put an end to the popular team-based shooter's PC exclusivity and port it over to consoles soon. While there was no mention of the Nintendo Switch whose third-party ports often come with major caveats, it will supposedly be dropping on Microsoft's own Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5. Even cross-generation ports will apparently be included, with plans for Xbox One and PS4. The user did not provide any further details on the matter, but Valorant Updates, who originally cited them, provided a link proving that Riot Games was hiring a new playtester.
Indeed, the job posting mentions that the developer is looking for someone who can assess the validity of "upcoming gameplay experiences" for Valorant. In particular, they want someone who has played console shooter games professionally, provide useful advice on how to optimize the game for such platforms, and is ranked Immortal or higher in Valorant. Other, more standard requirements for such a job are also present, such as strong communication, the ability to work in a team, at least a year of software quality assurance, and the ability to check players' pulse to identify sources of stress.
It is worth noting that rumors of Valorant going multiplatform have circulated since spring of 2022, with one of the later ones even backing itself up with a job posting. Considering this is now the second instance of such, it only adds more credence to the idea that Valorant might soon be available to console gamers. Aside from the intent to properly optimize such ports, nothing else is known about them. Perhaps the content, added moderation, and other tweaks from all currently-released seasons could be bundled in with these new versions from the start. Only time will tell until a proper announcement arrives to the public.
Valorant is available exclusively on PC.
Source: RiotGames.com