Last May, Riot Games confirmed that Valorant would begin recording portions of in-game voice comms for the purposes of fighting back against toxic behavior. The initial announcement offered an FAQ and promised to only keep “the absolute minimum data,” while the system would make its way to North American players first.
We now have a date for when that NA launch of the system will happen: Wednesday, July 13th. The voice recording functionality will arrive as a “background launch” to evaluate its functionality, handling only NA and English-speaking players in the interim. For the time being, this feature will not be utilized for any disruptive behavior reports, as Riot plans to only use the tool for its intended purpose when it enters into a beta phase later this year.
“Before we can even think of expanding this tool, we’ll have to be confident it’s effective, and if mistakes happen, we have systems in place to make sure we can correct any false positives,” the announcement remarks. “This is brand new tech and there will for sure be growing pains. But the promise of a safer and more inclusive environment for everyone who chooses to play is worth it.”
