Valorant gets a mobile version, but it won’t feature PC cross-play

By DeAngelo Epps June 2, 2021

To celebrate Valorant’s one-year anniversary, Riot Games announced that its newest tactical team shooter will be making its way to mobile devices. While the developers of the hit game stated that Valorant Mobile is in development, no release date, port differences, or specific hardware hosts have been confirmed.

Valorant is a competitive character-based tactical first-person shooter that released to immediate fanfare last year. It’s often compared to a mix of games like Valve’s Counter-Strike and Blizzard’s Overwatch.

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Valorant isn’t Riot’s first big game to make the move to mobile, as their popular title, League of Legends also received a mobile spin-off in Wild Rift. Wild Rift keeps the core gameplay of its predecessor while changing the experience to make it more comfortable and workable for the mobile market.

Valorant also isn’t the first FPS to be making its way to the mobile gaming scene. Games like Call of Duty Mobile and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds received mobile spin-offs as well, both of which are very successful in both expanding their brands beyond consoles and computers and delivering a fun gameplay experience for the many players around the world. Apex Legends and Battlefield both have mobile versions in the works too.

According to Polygon, Valorant executive producer Anna Donlon states that PC players have nothing to fear, as Valorant mobile won’t affect the PC version. She confirms that there are no plans for cross-play between the two versions of the game as of now.

In Polygon’s interview, Donlon comments on a console version of Valorant being in the works but nothing about it is set in stone yet, as the mobile version is the focus right now.

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De'Angelo Epps is a gaming writer passionate about the culture, communities, and industry surrounding gaming. His work ranges…

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Mortal Kombat is getting a mobile ‘team-based collection RPG’

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The new RPG is titled, Mortal Kombat: Onslaught. In an interview with Buisnesswire, Ed Boon, Chief Creative Officer of NetherRealm Studios, describes the game as a "strategic team-based collection RPG with fast-paced, group melee combat." He also speaks on how the game aims to be open enough for old and new series fans to jump into.

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Pokémon Sword and Shield won’t get new content or updates

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PlayStation and Xbox are betting big on mobile, and for good reason

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Sony surprised PlayStation fans August 29 when it acquired Savage Game Studios, a mobile game developer. As part of this announcement, Head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst unveiled the company's new PlayStation Studios Mobile Division that "will operate independently from our console development and focus on innovative, on-the-go experiences based on new and existing PlayStation IP." The news comes in the wake of the Backbone One -- PlayStation Edition's launch and Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition that will also bring Candy Crush developer King and Blizzard mobile games into Xbox Game Studios. It's clear that the big console players are investing more than ever in mobile.
That might sound like a shocking development, especially for hardcore console and PC players who aren't fans of mobile games for various reasons, including predatory monetization practices. But when you take a step back and look at the reality of mobile gaming, it's entirely clear why two of the biggest names in console gaming want to spread their reach to an even more global and lucrative market -- especially as overseas markets further embrace mobile as a gaming platform of choice.
Finding their knack for mobile
Focusing on console and PC gaming makes it easy to forget just how big mobile gaming is. After Microsoft's announcement of the Activision Blizzard acquisition, Omdia Principal Analyst George Jijiashvili told Digital Trends that while consumer spending on PC and console gaming is predicted to reach $62 billion this year, mobile game players will spend $111 billion overall in 2022. "If we look at our forecast for 2025, we expect the spend on console and PC games to remain relatively flat," Jijiashvili said. "However, mobile gaming is set to grow considerably." Jijiashvili's estimations also don't even consider cloud gaming, which is prevalent on mobile and is expected to grow in the coming years.

Jijiashvili highlighted that console gaming would stay healthy but somewhat stagnant as players from previous generations upgrade to PS5 and Xbox Series X. Meanwhile, he says PC gaming is falling out of favor in Asia, highlighting that a game like PUBG sees most resources assigned to the mobile game before they come over to the PC and console versions. Before the Activision Blizzard acquisition, Jijiashvili believed Xbox "desperately lacked" a strong foothold in the mobile gaming market, and it's easy for us to see that the same currently applies to PlayStation prior to the Savage Game Studios acquisition. For how important PlayStation and Xbox were to console players, companies like King and Zynga meant much more to mobile gamers for a long time.
On top of that, mobile gaming also expands these game companies' reach to an even bigger audience. Yes, over 20 million PS5 and 117 million PS4 consoles are out there, but especially in Asian markets, mobile games will give PlayStation and Xbox much more exposure. Of course, Jijiashvili points out that just having mobile studios doesn't immediately guarantee success, as Asian mobile players favor "more hardcore games from the battle royale and MOBA genres, which have achieved great popularity and deliver strong performance." Still, Xbox and PlayStation will soon have a stronger foothold than ever on platforms and in regions where gamers playing on PC or console isn't as prevalent.
It's worth noting that both Xbox and PlayStation do have some history on mobile -- just not very successful ones. Microsoft had Windows Phones, tried to shove SmartGlass features into early Xbox One exclusives, and is currently making great strides in console gaming via the cloud on mobile. Meanwhile, PlayStation franchises like Uncharted, LittleBigPlanet, and even Knack (Knack's Quest, ladies and gentlemen) got mobile games under the "PlayStation Mobile" banner in the 2010s. These acquisitions showed renewed interest in developing games exclusively made for mobile. While we can't predict Microsoft's long-term plans for King as the Activision Blizzard deal still isn't finished, Hulst made Savage Game Studios' position within PlayStation Studios very clear.