The wait is over: VALORANT open beta is now live on Xbox Series X, S, and PS5

Riot Games’ tactical shooter VALORANT has officially made its highly anticipated debut on consoles. Xbox and PlayStation players can now dive into the fast-paced, competitive world of VALORANT as the game has entered open beta on both platforms. 

The expansion marks a significant milestone for VALORANT, which garnered a massive following on PC since its launch in 2020. For console on the other hand, the title’s limited beta was released on June 14 and required codes to play, which has now come to an end with the arrival of the open beta.  “No more codes. download now”, reads the official VALORANT post on X (Formerly Twitter) announcing its debut on console.

VALORANT’s transition to console is also marked by several key adaptations. As Microsoft delineated in a post on Xbox Wire, “Riot is sparing no effort in bringing the title to Xbox,” and the post talked about the challenges developer Riot Games faced when porting their game to console. On PC, hip-fire is the primary mode of shooting with a secondary Aim-Down-Sights mode. In an attempt to recreate a version of this for the console came the introduction of “Focus mode” designed specifically for controller aiming. 

They also mentioned how Agent abilities have been adapted for the new input controls and confirmed that cross-play will be available across consoles, but not between PC and console. This was done to uphold the competitive nature of the game since there were a lot of control changes that were made to make it mimic the same dynamic feel that PC players experienced over the years.

There is, however, shared cross-progression between the PC and console, allowing PC players to transfer their inventories, ranks and battle pass progression across both versions of the game. Players on Xbox Game Pass will also have some additional goodies waiting for them, and will have all agents unlocked.

Along with console ports, Riot did announce it was working on a mobile version of the game in 2021, so we might even have that coming up in the near future. That said, it’s time to grab some controllers, assemble your team and experience the beloved tactical shooter on console.