Summary
- Valorant It's available now and free for everyone on Xbox Series X|S.
- Regular balance patches are essential to creating a highly competitive landscape, especially for tactical shooters.
- Valorant On console, it receives the same regular balance updates that PC players experience: patches every two weeks.
Valorant is now available on Xbox Series X|S, with some Important benefits for Game Pass membersSo grab four of your friends and join our 5v5 tactical shooter where you'll need creative strategy, effective communication, and precise aim to rise through the ranks.
But the launch is just the beginning for Valorant On console: This is how we will support the game in the future.
our philosophy
Riot Games was founded on the idea that competition should be fun at any level, whether it's your first Valorant Competitive Play: After you reach level 20 or advance to Radiant, competing in our games should be fair. Competitive integrity is at the heart of everything we do and is what sets us apart. Valorant Apart from other console shooters.
One thing we have learned after more than 4 years of Valorant On PC they are pretty crazy. Valorant The player base is constantly innovating the metagame and creating new strategies that surprise even us. Players are constantly finding new skill synergies between agents, new formations, new flanks, new ways to use a weapon, better smoke placements… You get the idea. We honestly love seeing it. And now we're really excited to welcome the console community into that space and see what they come up with next.
Due to the ever-changing landscape, we constantly monitor the performance of our maps, agents, weapons, and abilities at different skill levels.
Sometimes an agent can become too powerful as players learn and master their abilities. Or maybe a map becomes one-sided as teams figure out how to optimize the agent’s utility. Or maybe a certain weapon becomes too powerful as players hone their aim and learn how to better combo agent abilities.
Over time, seemingly small imbalances can make a game start to feel boring and predictable. And that's not Valorant.
What this means for players
So what does all this mean for the game in the long run? For our developers, it means their work is never done. For our unfamiliar players, it means a live service and live balance.
We release patches every two weeks across all platforms to address things like game balance, bug fixes, or quality of life improvements. And a few times a year, we release larger updates to an Agent's entire team when there's an opportunity to beef up or tone down their strength. These types of updates typically aren't needed very often and will only be implemented at a time that doesn't impact Pros' active play schedules.
So far, since the limited beta on consoles began two months ago, Valorant Four patches have already been applied to the game. We update the game frequently, but with an eye to the unique needs of each platform. Balance parity between PC and console is not necessarily guaranteed.
Why? While the level of competence and expression of skills is the same for Valorant On PC and console, gameplay must be balanced independently between platforms. With different input methods (controller vs. mouse and keyboard) come different playstyles. Some agents excel on console, but aren't as effective on PC, and vice versa. That's why our game developers have to test each one thoroughly and adjust only when it makes sense.
Beyond game balance, Valorant features a rotating map pool for competitive queue to ensure players get more variety as they rank up and even occasionally make changes to a map when it's out of competitive rotation.
Ultimately, it's up to you (our passionate community) to let us know how we're doing and show us how you'd improve the game. We're so grateful to those who helped us prepare for this day by participating in our open and limited beta periods, and we can't wait to see what you do next. So hop in, queue up, and get playing!
GL HF.
