When is the Valorant release date? As soon as Riot revealed the real name for Project A, we were asking ourselves the same question. The League of Legends developer initially teased the project during LoL’s 10th-anniversary stream. It was fairly fleeting, but it did show off the game’s core concept of CSGO-style gunplay and Overwatch-inspired abilities. You can probably see why the reveal turned a few heads.
Now that we’re storming closer to the release window, more details are starting to emerge. We’ve gotten a peep at some Valorant characters, PC specifications, and gameplay. The developer has also been getting into the nitty-gritty of the game’s code – mainly to assure the FPS games veterans that they’ll enjoy an optimum gaming experience.
As always with new PC games, though, it can be hard to keep track of all the information that’s buzzing around. As such, we’re compiling everything we write and stumble across into this easy to digest guide. That way, details about Valorant’s release date, trailer, gameplay, and more should be easier to keep on top of.
Valorant release date
The Valorant release date is 2 June, 2020. Riot Games has announced the official worldwide release date for Valorant alongside a blog that outlines what the studio is focusing on in the run up to 1.0. The closed beta will close a few days before the final release date on May 28, so if you’re still tracking down a key then you may be too late.
Valorant trailer
To celebrate the game’s reveal, Riot gave us a peek at Valorant’s gameplay. Check it out above to see what all that Overwatch meets CSGO chat is about.
What is Valorant?
Valorant is a character-based tactical shooter from the developer of League of Legends. Don’t let Riot’s history with the MOBA throw you off, though, as this game looks more like a mashup of CSGO’s gunplay and Overwatch’s abilities.
Each team has five members, and everyone gets to pick a hero with four unique Valorant abilities – two of which you’ll have to buy between rounds alongside weapons and armour. Speaking of that, Valorant’s weapons economy is a lot like CSGO. You can purchase a selection of weapons at the start of each round, which means you won’t be met with Overwatch’s gun restriction. Oh, how I’d love to be a Reinhardt with Tracer’s pistols.
Another difference to Overwatch is the ultimate abilities, you’ll find here that they take much longer to charge up, and sometimes you’ll be waiting for whole rounds to be able to use it. We know of eight characters right now, but more could be revealed as we get closer to the release date.
Pick your character wisely, however, as you won’t have the option of swapping mid-game if things are going wrong. There are 24 rounds per game, too, so chances are you’ll be stuck for a fair bit.
We’ve only seen one Valorant game mode so far, and it’s bomb defusal. It works a lot like Counter-Strike, and tasks one team with planting a bomb and the other team with stopping them.
More Valorant guides:
Valorant Sage guide
Valorant Jett guide
Valorant Sova guide
Riot has also gone into detail about the online performance of Valorant to woo interested players. As the developer explains on Valorant’s website, you can expect “128-tick servers, at least 30 frames per second on most min-spec computers (even dating back a decade), 60 to 144 FPS on modern gaming rigs, a global spread of datacenters aimed at <35ms for players in major cities around the world, a netcode we’ve been obsessing over for years, and a commitment to anti-cheat from day one”. It’s yet to be seen just how well Riot’s shooter will run, and the could well be bumpy, but the developer certainly seems to be taking performance seriously.
If you’re asking yourself can my PC run Valorant, then check your setup against the Valorant system requirements.