Valorant has been in solid control of the internet for the past week, and it’s all we’re hearing about on every social site that we log into; from viewbotting to access drops, fierce competition to brilliant plays, it seems like a Herculean task to avoid any news of it if you have no interest in competitive first-person shooters. Yet just as eagerly as some are trying to avoid it, others are continuing to binge Twitch streams with the hope that the access key will eventually drop for them.
Yet there’s a third party of interest in regards to Valorant, and that’s found on the console forums that litter the internet, looking through the window of Twitch at the joy that PC users are experiencing (along with minor rage-inducing moments) and wondering if Valorant will be coming soon to consoles. Unfortunately for console users, that answer seems to be a resounding no, at least for the time being while Riot works on ensuring the PC experience is the best possible.
Popular Twitch streamer TimTheTatman was able to get Valorant developer Trevor Romleski on the horn to ask some pressing questions from the fans about Valorant, and console release was one of them.
Our focus right now is on PC. We’re open to exploring new opportunities for other platforms, but for the time being what our current focus is, is on the PC platform. – Trevor Romleski
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPBlKwwmNas
While that will likely be a source of anguish, for the time being, it also brings with it a few questions about how, specifically, Valorant could even work on consoles. It’s a game about tactics and strategy which are easy enough to carry over, but one thing that consoles can’t do is precision aiming. This means that some form of aim-assist would need to be incorporated into Valorant, removing a sizeable chunk of skill-based gameplay from the popular title.
Positioning and utility usage are just as important, if not moreso, than the raw aim skill, and console players shouldn’t despair entirely; Counter-Strike: Global Offensive made the jump to consoles (which didn’t work too well) as did Overwatch and Team Fortress 2. They all worked well-enough, although not necessarily in a competitive form, to be playable and enjoyable.
Yet this is an issue that has plagued console gamers for decades at this point, and it’s not one that consoles developers seem inclined to work on. Controllers continue to surface with analogue sticks that simply are rather rough to aim with, although they work wonders for twin-stick shooters and driving games (I’m utterly convinced that anyone that plays Rocket League with a keyboard and mouse is a masochist in some form). It’s likely that we’ll hear more on the release of Valorant for consoles, if it happens, around the holiday 2020 timeframe.
