Riot Games’ Free-To-Play Shooter Valorant Launches on Xbox Series X|S and PS5 Today

Valorant, the popular free-to-play tactical hero shooter is launching on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 consoles today. The game was first released on PC back in 2020, and Riot Games took the time to create a console port that will receive the same regular balance updates as the PC version.

Valorant has been available in open beta on current-gen consoles for two months. However, due to keyboard and mouse players on PC getting a competitive advantage over console players with a controller, there’s no cross-play between the PC and console versions of Valorant. This quite an unusual thing to do at a time when Call of Duty and most competitive shooters today support crossplay.

“While the level of competition and skill-expression is the same for Valorant on PC and console, the game needs to be balanced independently between platforms,” explained Kenny Cameron, Marketing Writer at Riot Games. “With different input methods (controller vs. mouse and keyboard) comes different playstyles. Some Agents shine on console but aren’t as effective on PC and vice versa. So our game developers have to test each extensively and adjust only when it makes sense.”

If you have an Xbox Game Pass subscription, you can access the same exclusive perks and benefits that PC Game Pass members have been enjoying since 2022. That includes access to all of Valorant’s Agents (including day one access to new agents), as well as a 20% match XP boost given to Battle Pass, Active Agent Contract, and Event Pass progress.