Riot Games announced that their tactical shooter, VALORANT, is headed to Xbox and PlayStation 5 consoles. Here's a quick guide on how to join the VALORANT Console Beta now.

VALORANT Console Beta

The VALORANT Console Limited Beta is on the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. It will begin on June 14, 2024 1:00 PM PT.

Sign up for the Console Limited Beta here.

Note that this is a Limited Beta, which means that signing up does not guarantee you a slot. Selected players will receive an email with instructions on how to access the game. These players will also be able to invite 5 other people to the VALORANT Console Limited Beta with a personal referral link.

The first wave of the VALORANT Console Limited Beta is only available in the USA, Canada, Europe, and Japan. Riot said that more regions will be rolled out in future waves. People who are not from the above regions are still encouraged to sign up as their eligibility will be carried over once their region opens.

There will also be a special player card for everyone who played VALORANT on console or PC during the Limited Beta period.

Riot Games has clarified that there will be no crossplay between Console and PC players. “We believe strongly in competitive integrity, and this is the best way for us to keep the experience fair and consistent for players on both console and PC.”

However, there will be cross-progression. That means your inventory is shared between the console and PC versions. Purchased skins, recruited Agents, and Battlepass progress will all be shared. Like the PC version, VALORANT on console will be free and will require a Riot account to play and sync your progress across platforms.

Players that have received a permaban on their VALROANT or Riot account are not eligible for the console version of the game.

VALORANT Devs on goals and gameplay

Arnar Gylfason, Production Director of VALORANT at Riot Games, answered some pressing questions about VALORANT's move to consoles and some console-specific gameplay features.

What is the goal of bringing VALORANT to consoles?

We believe there are millions of players that would love to play VALORANT, but currently can’t, and we hope to change that with bringing VALORANT to consoles. We aim to provide them the joy of the VALORANT experience and all it entails: a core tactical shooter gameplay focused on mastery and player expression, a team-based competitive environment where match quality and fairness comes first, our amazing ecosystem with a unique style, high quality cosmetics and a thriving community that values personal and competitive identity.

How has the team adapted and upheld VALORANT’s competitive experience for consoles?

When adapting any features for consoles, our goal was to provide the VALORANT moment on a new platform that meant not simply adapting the input method, but ensuring that the experience stays true to the original. We achieved this through multiple iterations, analyzing how problems were solved by other games and most importantly, getting player feedback–a lot of player feedback. We were also very excited to create the best competitive experience for controllers. This required changes to the game to ensure that it feels right and fair on consoles, so we included new features like Focus where needed, adapted agent abilities, and many others to deliver that goal. With these improvements, other changes had to be made, including not allowing PC to Console cross-play, all to ensure that we maintain VALORANT’s standard for competitive integrity.

Are there any specific console features you’d like to highlight for players?

One of my favorite new features for consoles is Focus while shooting. In order to provide the same experience as PC, where Hip-Fire is the primary shooting mode and ADS is a secondary, supporting mode, we experimented with multiple adaptations and gamepad sensitivities. But on console, shooting on hip-fire never felt the same and the player didn't have the same range of possibilities and the same level of gameplay expression as on PC. And that’s when Focus comes in. Focus is a new shooting mode that behaves essentially like Hip-Fire, but with reduced sensitivity. This way, players can use Hip-Fire whenever they need speed in moving their camera/aim (peeking corners, dodging utility), but utilize focus mode whenever they need precision (getting those cool headshots). This also approximates the shooting mechanic to what console players are used to in shooters, all of this without losing the added value VALORANT’s ADS provides.

The VALORANT Console Limited Beta begins on June 14, 2024 for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. Registrations for the limited beta are now open on the official website.