Valorant Lead Believes It "Scratches A Different Itch" To Concord And Marvel Rivals

Summary

• Valorant has been shadowdropped on consoles, ending a four-year exclusivity period for PC gamers.
• If you're thinking the console free-to-play shooter space, particularly, the "hero shooter" space is too crowded, then know that Riot doesn't think of Valorant as one.
• More so, Riot believes that Valorant can coexist along with other similar games.

In a welcome Friday surprise, Riot Games brought its popular online FPS, Valorant, to consoles. The release for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles ends four years of PC exclusivity, and comes just a month after the free-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 that Riot sees things differently. Because while Valorant has many elements of a hero shooter, like Overwatch, 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

In an exclusive interview with GamesRadar+, Riot Games' director of production and product lead for Valorant, Arnar Hrafn Gylfason, shared why exactly the company believes Valorant can stand out all these years later. First and foremost, Riot doesn't subscribe to the idea that Valorant is a hero shooter. "We don't think of [Valorant] as a hero shooter," Gylfason said.

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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 which Marvel Rivals and Concord were 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.

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