Riot devs explain the challenges behind bringing Valorant to console

Ever since Riot Games new FPS Valorant was announced, console players have been wondering when or how the game will eventually make it to console, and now, developers have opened up about the challenges they’ve faced trying to do just that.

Several Riot devs discussed a wide range of topics in an extensive interview with Eurogamer on June 26, including additional modes that could be possible in the game’s future, as well as the challenges in bringing the Valorant experience to console players.

Valorant’s principal engineer, Felipe Romero, told Eurogamer that the biggest task for developers was recreating the same unique experience on console controllers as on PC.

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“Valorant is a game that requires precise aiming, responsive movement, recoil control, and being able to execute abilities in a limited amount of time,” Romero said in the interview. “Valorant was designed to be played and experienced in a particular way.”

“Is it possible to effectively execute a clutch play in Valorant using a controller? How much aiming and movement assistance can we provide without sacrificing the overall competitive environment?” he continued. “We want to make sure playing with a controller remains true to that core vision.”

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As far as Valorant’s performance on consoles as compared to PC, Romero said developers weren’t worried about the technical side of things due to their focus early on in making sure the game worked whether you have a monster gaming rig or not.

“In terms of performance, we believe getting Valorant running at 120Hz on next-gen consoles is an achievable goal,” the developer revealed. “This is mostly thanks to the aggressive performance targets that Valorant initially set. During development, we put emphasis [on] hitting high frame-rates at commonly used resolutions.”

While Romero certainly did talk about the challenges facing Valorant on console, he didn’t mention whether or not it would actually be happening in the future.

Riot developers have opened up on the possibility of their cerebral shooter heading to platforms like Playstation and Xbox, but while they certainly seem to be exploring their options, we still don’t know officially whether Valorant on consoles will be a thing or not.