Riot Games teased players back in June when they announced that they plan to bring VALORANT to mobile. However, NetEase Games might beat them to the market with their own version of VALORANT on mobile: Project M.

It's no longer surprising at this point, but it's still a bit jarring to see games that look eerily similar to other games. Aside from the familiar aesthetics, Project M‘s mechanics also seem to take liberal inspiration from Riot's title. Also, as DOT Esports rightly pointed out, Project M is probably a callback to VALORANT‘s development title: Project A.

While it now falls under Riot Games to act upon this supposed infringement, it's still going to be a steep hill to climb for VALORANT. Getting to market first is most important, as what can be learned from Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Fans would remember that Moontoon's title did receive contentions for being a ‘blatant copy' of League of Legends, but was able to wriggle out of their predicament by adding “Bang Bang” in its title. That is, only after they paid out $2.9 million in damages. Still, the point stands that MLBB remains popular today and was able to dodge complete oblivion even though evidence stood that it blatantly infringed on copyrights.

Now, it would be important for Riot Games to rush their game to mobile. If Project M gains too much steam before VALORANT Mobile actually releases, it might be hard to take back any lost market. Even with litigation, chances are, Project M is here to stay.

Meanwhile, if you're interested in taking part in Project M‘s Closed Beta, then tough luck. The game's closed beta period ended on August 6. You might want to test out Tencent's Apex Legends Mobile instead, in the meantime.