Riot Games Confirms Valorant Won't Have Controversial Feature

There's always a trade-off when it comes to free-to-play titles. Typically, these trade-offs come in the form of microtransactions, which force players to pay for any extras they might want in the game, such as alternate skins, weapons, and more. While gamers have come to accept microtransactions as a necessary part of free-to-play titles, no one is a fan of loot boxes. The practice drains gamers of their funds, and often gives an unfair advantage to those with deeper pockets. Fortunately, Riot Games' upcoming free-to-play title Valorant will not feature loot boxes. Instead, sprays and weapon skins can be purchased from the game's store, using real money, rather than something along the lines of Fortnite's V-Bucks.

Avoiding loot boxes altogether is certainly a good way for Riot Games to build strong word-of-mouth in the build-up to Valorant's release. The news comes just days after Riot Games was forced to cancel hands-on events featuring Valorant. Like so many other recent cancellations around the video game industry, the announcement was made thanks to concerns over Coronavirus. However, with the game still some time away from its summer release window, there should be plenty of other opportunities for players to go hands-on.

Valorant is a first-person shooter in which two teams of five players compete. The attacking team's goal is to place and protect a bomb, while the defending team's goal is to prevent the bomb from being placed, or diffusing it before it does off. Setting off or diffusing a bomb gets each team a point, and the goal is to win best out of 25.

While players will be able to purchase weapon skins and sprays directly from the in-game store, Valorant players won't be able to find character skins there. That's because Riot Games has decided against including them right away. Instead, they want players to be able to recognize the characters in the game, and skins could have an impact on that. Each character has their own special abilities, so being able to assess those abilities will play a central role in winning each match. Riot Games doesn't want certain players to gain an edge based on skins, so the option has been left out, for now. The publisher has not ruled them out for the future, however.

What do you think about Riot Games ditching loot boxes for Valorant? Does it make you more likely to check out the upcoming game? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!