Originally codenamed Project A, Valorant is Riot Games’ own tactical shooter for PC, due out in the summer.
Over the weekend, one of Riot Games’ upcoming titles, Project A, was apparently leaked early, with its actual name, Valorant, quickly becoming known.
Some fans of the mystery title theorised that the leak meant we’d get an official announcement soon. And they were right.
For those who missed it, Valorant was originally announced last year, amongst a bunch of other projects, with the only info being that it would be a tactical shooter.
Earlier today, Riot provided more concrete details about the game, including a release window of summer 2020 and the launch of an official website and description:
‘… Valorant is a free-to-play game of precise skill, high stakes, lethal gameplay, and clutch moments that rewards creative gameplay styles. Valorant pits two teams of five players against each other to win a round-based, attackers vs defenders, best-of-24-rounds gunfight.
‘In Valorant, players choose from a diverse cast of hypernatural, battle-ready agents from real-world cultures and locations, each bringing a set of unique abilities that complement gunplay through tactical information and strategic support, changing the way players approach a situation. Abilities are designed to create tactical opportunities for players to take the right shot.’
So far, it sounds very much like Overwatch, especially in regards to its diverse cast, though with a much less cartoony art style judging by some alpha footage Riot has shared (though it’s possible it could change).
As it is, it bears more similarities to another PC tactical shooter with a strong competitive scene, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. That game had over 901,681 concurrent players, according to PCGamesN, in early February, smashing its previous record. Then, over the weekend, that record was broken again, with the game having 924,045 concurrent players. So Valorant clearly won’t be lacking in competition when it launches.
For those who may want more technical details, Riot also confirmed that the game will include 128-tick servers for all global players (which will also be free for everyone and upscale lagging players’ movement up to 128 frames per second), custom-built netcode, and proprietary anti-cheat prevention and detection from day one.
Currently, the plan is to release Valorant for PC, with no word on whether it will come to consoles. Considering Riot’s other free-to-play online multiplayer title, League Of Legends, was a PC exclusive for 10 years before a console port was announced, it’s unlikely Valorant will make the jump to consoles any time soon.
Valorant is scheduled to release this summer for PC.
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