Will VALORANT support cross-play between PC and the upcoming mobile version?
VALORANT is a free-to-play first-person tactical 5v5 shooter game developed by Riot Games. The main inspiration comes from CS:GO, but the core difference is that the agents in VALORANT have abilities. Riot initially teased it as Project A back in October 2019. According to the VALORANT Wikipedia page, VALORANT has been in active development for more than six years.
In April 2020, VALORANT entered Closed Beta with limited access to keys. Players interested in VALORANT could get a key by watching sponsored streamers on Twitch. This unorthodox marketing strategy took VALORANT to the top of Twitch’s list. More than 1 million people were watching VALORANT on Twitch for a chance to get beta key drops.
After the official release, the popularity of VALORANT only grew thanks to Riot Games’ continuous support and frequent updates. VALORANT is one of the most popular games globally and has more than 1.5 million daily active players.
To make VALORANT appeal to a broader market, Riot Games announced a mobile version. Since the announcement, many players have been wondering if there will be cross-play between the two versions.
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What is Crossplay?
The full form of Crossplay is Cross-Platform Play. Developers might release a game that may be playable on different platforms. So if players of that game are able to play together despite using either a PC, mobile, or console, then that game is dubbed as having cross-play.
A Prime example of this feature is Fortnite Battle Royale. Since its release, Console and PC players could play together in the same lobby. Then, after its mobile release, all console, mobile, and PC players could play together.
You might think that with today’s technology, Crossplatform play should be available automatically. But that’s not the case as it depends on several factors. The first and main one is the difference in control schemes.
PC Players using the mouse and keyboard might have an unfair advantage against controller and mobile users. This poses a problem in a competitive game scenario as the playing field needs to be fair to preserve competitive integrity.
The other reason for not having Cross-Platform Play is the closed nature of Consoles. Usually, companies close off their consoles to external hardware to protect users and provide a safe environment.
But console companies are slowly opening up to the idea of enabling cross-platform play and even supporting developers during the development of cross-platform games. The same thing is true for mobile games. Day by day, mobile devices are getting more powerful hardware, thus enabling the chance to incorporate cross-play.
VALORANT Console:
In February 2022, some leaks about a VALORANT console version surfaced. According to the leaks, Riot games was apparently hiring developers for a console version of VALORANT.
During a recent interview, Riot Games Executive Producer Anna Donlon told Polygon about their plans to create a console version of VALORANT. But at the moment, the development team is simply exploring the idea. The mobile version of VALORANT will take priority before the console version.
VALORANT Mobile:
The other popular Riot Games title League of Legends already has a mobile version. League of Legends: Wild Rift is already popular among mobile gamers. Riot realized the massive potential of the mobile gaming market and decided to bring VALORANT to mobile devices as well.
As part of the VALORANT one-year celebration, Riot Games announced a mobile version was in development. According to some recent leaks, VALORANT mobile is already in the testing phase in China.
A VALORANT content creator, Erik Panitz, recently revealed some more info about VALORANT mobile. According to the Tweet, players will be able to use their PC account to play VALORANT mobile. This means that all the skins and collections might be accessible across both VALORANT PC and Mobile.
The VALORANT mobile screenshot also shows only seven agents available currently. Riot might slowly release the rest of the champions on VALORANT mobile.
VALORANT PC and Mobile Crossplay?
Riot Games Executive Producer Anna Donlon recently gave an interview with Polygon where she talked about VALORANT mobile. During the interview, Donlon said,
“For us, whatever you get out of playing on PC, you should get out of playing Valorant on mobile. But we have to recognize that the mobile player need is different.”
According to her, The Mobile version of VALORANT won’t affect the quality of PC players and vice versa.
“The same way that we’re not going to deliver a subpar mobile experience for mobile players, we’re not going to compromise the PC experience either”
“We’re not trying to convert Valorant PC players into Valorant Mobile players or vice versa. […] We’re absolutely just as committed to keeping the PC experience at the quality level it is or higher, and we’re not going to compromise it in order to address the mobile market.”
Donlon later clarified that as part of keeping the experience separate for PC and Mobile players, Riot has no plans for cross-play between the two versions right now.
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