Is Valorant The Next Big Thing?

On Monday, March 2nd, new gameplay was released about Riot Games' newest project, formerly known as "Project A" their newest first person shooter. We got a name for this "Project A" and it's called Valorant. From what I could tell from the gameplay and the reactions from personalities on Twitter, this game is looking like a cross between Counter-Strike, Overwatch, all while adding new features that will make the game seem all its own. You can check out the gameplay here, and I would love to hear your thoughts about how well you think this game is going to do!

For myself, I'm very excited for a new first person shooter from Riot, as I do play quite a lot of League of Legends, and while their track record with League isn't perfect in terms of finding the perfect balance between champions, hopefully they won't run into much of an issue with Valorant. The developers at Riot are touting Valorant as a game "where creativity is your greatest weapon" and from what I've seen, the abilities some characters posses will surely call for some strategic minds to mesh together in order to win games. There are some scenarios where I could see abilities become more of an on screen nuisance than anything.

While I am excited for the release of Valorant later this summer, there is a question whether this game will have any effect on games like Counter-Strike and Overwatch. And honestly I think the answer is yes. Riot is notorious for pumping money into League of Legends, bringing in millions in sponsorships and licensing deals that keep the games up and running. My main concern is Overwatch. Blizzard had a rough 2019 in regards to a ton of their games and more specifically, their players and the protests in Hong Kong. A few players offered their support for the Hong Kong protestors, and Blizzard took winnings and even fined players for their statements. While these decisions aren't necessarily Overwatch's, when you think of Overwatch, you think of Blizzard. That negative feedback from your player base ultimately hurts your game. So yes, I think Overwatch will take a hit in player numbers when Valorant is released. Counter-Strike on the other hand, I think will do just fine. Earlier this year, it was reported by Statista that the game hit a peak number of current players in 2020 coming in at around 817,000 in the month of January.

Only time will tell if Valorant is good enough to take down giants like Overwatch and Counter-Strike, however with so much positive feedback already, from just one round of a dev demo, it's hard to see this game failing, especially with Riot behind it.