Valorant Lead Thinks It's More "Sweaty" Than Concord And Marvel Rivals

Summary

In a welcome Friday surprise, Riot Games brought its popular online FPS, Valorant, to consoles. The release forPlayStation 5andXbox Seriesconsoles ends four years of PC exclusivity, and comes just a month after thefree-to-play title entered a console beta.

But if you were concerned about the sheer number of free-to-play shooters available, and the increasing number of hero shooters either available or upcoming, then know thatRiotsees things differently. Because whileValoranthas many elements of a hero shooter, likeOverwatch, its creators believe it’s something else entirely. One that “scratches a different itch,” compared to other titles.

Valorant Is Not A “Hero Shooter,” Says Riot

Instead, its foundation in tactical gameplay gives it liberties that other games don’t have. “At the core, we are a tactical shooter,” he said. “We happen to have agents who have abilities,” which “gives us a lot of liberty and leeway to create all kinds of gameplay fantasies and IP creative fantasies as well.”

It’s that idea that is guiding the team at Riot as Valorant enters the console space at a time in whichMarvel RivalsandConcordwere concurrently undergoing betas. “At the core, we are like a very serious, fairly sweaty, competitive, tactical shooter,” Gylfason said.

“I think that scratches a different itch than the kind of hero action shooters that we’ve been seeing in this space for the past few years. And then we’re seeing that in how players show up. We’re not saying one is better than the other, but they serve different needs, and they serve different player motivations.”

In other words, as much as the comparisons do exist, Valorant exists within its own sphere. The same can be said of the upcoming Rivals and Concord. It’s the hope of developers that those games are able to find their lasting audience, particularly as the space becomes more and more crowded. That said, there’s also no ill will between teams, either. “I think there’s room for all,” Gylfason concluded.

Whichever way you dissect Gylfason’s thoughts, it’s interesting to see how developers in particular not only view their own games, but the space as a whole. Because while many games get lumped into the same categories, i.e. Soulsborne, the developers themselves know what their intent is. More so, while gamers may think the space is crowded, and to an extent it really is, the groups behind these games believe there is room for all the games to coexist despite similarities.