Is VALORANT coming to consoles in 2024? There’s new evidence to suggest it

It is an unmistakeable truth that Riot Games has been one of the industry leaders in the competitive multiplayer side of the video game industry. Over a decade of League of Legends backs them up, but then just a few years ago they chose to release VALORANT, a tactical 5v5 shooter that quickly became a successful esport with millions of players and spectators alike. But fans have always wanted the game to come to consoles.

While there’s always been rumors about a possible launch on PlayStation, Xbox, or even Nintendo’s consoles, nothing has ever been confirmed by the developers so far. They’ve shown interest in the idea, but up until now nothing tangible has come from it. But the rumors have been getting stronger every month, and now a datamining operation has resulted in what seems like a pretty solid clue that they might be working on porting the game.

The line of code shared by Twitter/X user @VALORANTLeaksEN seems to be meant to trigger a message in the game about a controller being disconnected. This is innocent enough until you realise that VALORANT doesn’t have any official gamepad support. It could very well be that Riot is working on adding XInput compatibility, but given that the title is actually part of Xbox’s PC Game Pass, it’s another hint of its possible arrival to consoles.

Could VALORANT console playtests happen soon?

Just last year, several job listings appeared in the Riot Games career platform, where there was a call for “Game Design Manager” and “Senior Game Designer” positions focused on VALORANT specifically on consoles.

Fans are even claiming that January 2024 is when the game could go into playtesting for PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. However, none of this has been announced, confirmed, or even mentioned by the developers. So far we only have the latest datamine, which as is usual in the industry, should be taken as nothing more than a rumor until an official announcement.