Out of nowhere, Riot Games today announced a Valorant mobile spinoff. No platforms are confirmed yet, though it is expected to launch on iPhone’s iOS and Android mobiles. Details emerged as Valorant celebrates its one-year anniversary this month.
When is Valorant Mobile launching?
Details about the Valorant Mobile spinoff are still few and far between, after its announcement today from Polygon. It comes from an interview with Valorant executive producer Anna Donlon. Significantly, the game isn’t a direct port of the PC Valorant to mobiles. Instead, Riot Games is delivering a “unique-to-mobile experience,” with tweaks to suit the mobile format.
“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.”
As the games will operate as separate entities, there won’t be cross-play between PC and mobile forms of Valorant. Equally, development on Valorant mobile won’t impact support for the PC version. Donlon clarifies that “we’re absolutely just as committed to keeping the PC experience at the quality level it is or higher.”
Looking to the future, Donlon also mentions eventually bringing Valorant to console. At present, it’s just an idea at Riot Games, and isn’t in development yet. Peripherals seem to be an obstacle, as Donlon says “it’s not easy to have that level of competitive integrity on a platform where the controller is fighting you for that.” Therefore, it might be a while before PlayStation and Xbox players get to experience Valorant.
Valorant’s one-year anniversary takes place this June. The game recently hit 14 million total monthly players – and this mobile announcement means the game is only getting bigger. No release date details are available yet, though Donlon believes the mobile spinoff will emerge within the next year.
