It looks like Riot Games is ready to call beta testing for Valorant just about done. During a Summer Game Fest livestream, the studio announced that the team-based multiplayer shooter would be wrapping up closed beta on May 28th and officially launch to “the majority of regions worldwide” on June 2nd.
When the shooter does go live, it will do so with new weapon skins, a season pass, and a new game mode that will apparently be in a beta state for an indeterminate length of time. Details on what this new mode might be were thin, but it has been confirmed by senior producer and product manager Jared Berbach on Twitter that the new mode will not be deathmatch. That said, Berbach also notes that the desire for a deathmatch mode is heard “loud and clear,” and states that the devs are working on prototyping a deathmatch-style mode.
While Valorant hasn’t been in beta for too long, it almost immediately made waves because of an anti-cheat background process that required a couple of adjustments, a Twitch viewership campaign that artificially spiked viewership numbers thanks to beta key giveaways (which Riot never paid influencers for), and a toxicity problem Riot claims will be handled by improved report automation and punishments like 72-hour team and voice chat restrictions for violators according to a recent dev post.
If you’re at all curious about Valorant, you won’t have too long to wait to explore the shooter yourself, but you can get an idea of where the game could fit in an MMO gamer’s rotation in Sam’s Fight or Kite column.
Drops are ending, as are all purchases in the Closed Beta store. And… Closed Beta thereafter. Let’s talk about the end of the world and the welcoming of a new one — some basic things you need to know about the final days of the VALORANT Closed Beta: https://t.co/bI91UfjQ6b
— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) May 22, 2020
