If you’re dying to get your hands on Riot Games’ new first-person shooter, then you’re in luck. The closed beta for Valorant starts next week but the game will only be available initially for players in Canada, Europe, Russia, Turkey, and the United States.
Plans for the closed beta, which starts on April 7, have been widely affected by the global coronavirus pandemic, with Riot Games focusing on giving players access to the game where the company feels the most prepared for. In time, the closed beta might be extended to other regions depending on server capacity and capability.
“Our plan was to bring the Valorant Closed Beta to as many players around the world as quickly as possible, but the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted those plans, compromising a wider global rollout,” Anna Donlon, Valorant’s executive producer, says. “For now, we have to focus on the regions where we feel most ready, with more regions following in the months to come.
“We want to engage with players as globally as possible as quickly as possible, and so we’ll ramp up our player count as much as we can to test our infrastructure, but we won’t be letting everyone playtest Valorant until we’re absolutely sure we can handle it in this newly uncertain environment.”
Riot is collaborating with Twitch for the closed beta rollout, so if you want to help shape the future of the game, you’ll need to have or register a Riot account, link that account to your Twitch account, and watch specific streams highlighted on Twitch to be in with a chance of winning a closed beta slot.
There’s still no word on how long the beta will last but Riot Games has confirmed that it is still targeting that summer 2020 release date. That being said, Riot will reevaluate that if “we hear a lot of unexpected feedback” during the beta period.
For those of you who get access to the closed beta, it’s worth saying your progress won’t carry over to launch, and if you buy Valorant points during the beta, you’ll be given those back on launch and 20% extra. So if you buy 1000 Valorant points next week, you’ll be given 1,200 points when the game eventually launches. The price of the points are subject to change, though.
So there you have it. If you’re a fan of games like CS:GO, Overwatch, and Rainbow Six Siege – you’re not going to want to miss this. Trust us.