Riot Games’ unveiled the look and gameplay for its upcoming free to play shooter Valorant recently, setting communities abuzz with its fusion of Overwatch and Counter-Strike: GO. While the jury is still out on the game, the developer has confirmed a few things about its monetization. According to Polygon, there will be a battle pass for players to purchase and level up.
There are no loot boxes. Cosmetics include sprays and weapon skins, and these can be purchased directly from the game’s store with real money. Executive producer Anna Donlon said that weapon skins could be upgraded and that there are a “couple of different progression systems.” This seems to indicate non-microtransaction driven systems but we’ll have to wait and see.
One big difference from games like Overwatch is the lack of alternate character skins. This is because the developer doesn’t want characters to become tougher to recognize. While they’re not ruled out completely, Donlond said, “I think [character skins] would have to be in a way that there’s absolutely nothing to impact the gameplay. It’ll be narrow. I think there’s a way to do that. And those are things that we’re interested in exploring.”
Valorant is currently slated to release in Summer 2020 for PC. Sign-ups for the closed beta are currently available.
