Is Valorant coming out on PS4 or PS5?

First-person shooter Valorant is a game that would work brilliantly on consoles, but when is it coming to PlayStation 4 or 5?

Valorant is almost 18 months old at this point and developers at Riot Games openly discussed the possibility of porting the tactical shooter to consoles ahead of its release. Since then, there’s been little word on a Valorant release for the PlayStation 4 or 5, Xbox One or Series, or Nintendo Switch.

Much of the chatter regarding Valorant has been instead focused on a mobile port of the game, with Riot Games developer Anna Donlon confirming in June that Valorant Mobile is in development. Attention has been focused on the mobile version of the game, leaving PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo fans in limbo.

So is Valorant ever going to come out on PS4, or on any other console? Here’s everything there is to know about console versions of Valorant.

When is Valorant coming out on PS4 or PS5?

Valorant is not coming out on the PS4 or PS5 anytime soon, and it’s possible that it may never come out on the PS4 at all.

In June, Riot’s Anna Donlon gave an interview with Polygon where she discussed the status of Valorant console ports. After confirming Valorant Mobile, she declared that a PS4 or PS5 port of the game won’t be coming until after Valorant Mobile. Donlon stated that the transition from PC to consoles wasn’t looking good for Valorant.

“Oddly enough, I actually do think the transition to mobile has been slightly easier for us. Console’s obvious for FPS, right…But this type of game, a tactical shooter, on console is not easy. It’s not easy to have that level of competitive integrity on a platform where the controller is fighting you for that,” Donlon said.

Exactly why Riot isn’t able to make Valorant work on consoles is unknown, as numerous other hero shooters have successfully been executed on consoles. Though PC is the preferred platform for almost all first-person shooters, Overwatch and Apex Legends have both been faithfully recreated on consoles. Even Fortnite’s building mechanics have been pulled off on the PlayStation and Xbox.

The key difference here may be the degree of precision aiming that is consistently required in Valorant, while only sometimes being necessary in most FPS games that have been ported to consoles.

Regardless of why, Valorant isn’t coming out on PlayStation platforms anytime soon. Donlon was explicit that Valorant isn’t coming out on consoles until after Valorant Mobile releases, and Valorant Mobile doesn’t yet have a release date. Donlon noted that the goal is to have Valorant Mobile out “in year two,” which would end in June 2022

This means that the most optimistic estimate for Valorant’s console release would likely be in late 2022. But given the likely amount of time required to complete a satisfactory port of the game, it could be even longer than that.

The trouble is that as the PlayStation 5 gets older, the prospect of Valorant on PS4 grows dimmer. If development of Valorant console ports drags into 2023 or 2024, the PS4 could reach a level of obsolescence that would make a port untenable.