https://www.techpowerup.com/327272/riot-games-teases-new-valorant-games-and-unreal-engine-5-port-with-future-graphics-updates Epic Games kicked off the Unreal Fest in Seattle earlier this week with a keynote that revealed some interesting details about the company's marketing and publication strategies going forward. Also during that same keynote, Riot Games executive producer, Anna Donlon, teased that there will be more "playable experiences" coming to the "Valorant universe."
While Donlon was deliberately vague about any upcoming Valorant-adjacent games currently in development, she was a little more candid about Valorant's Unreal Engine 5 update, admitting that limitations in Unreal Engine 4.27—Valorant's current underpinnings—were what prompted the move to UE5 in the first place. However, a shift to Unreal Engine 5 will not immediately change how the game performs, feels, or looks.
It's unclear what exactly the Valorant development team is working on, but its League of Legends spin-offs, like Legends of Runeterra and League of Legends: Wild Rift, were generally rather well received, even by those who weren't already LoL players. When it came to upgrading Valorant to Unreal Engine 5, Donlon had this to say:
And this upgrade is not going to significantly change how Valorant looks or performs, at least not right away, but here's what I can say...there are many developers back at Riot who are incredibly grateful for what Unreal has allowed us to do for players, and there are many developers back at Riot who are very excited about what UE5 can do for us in the future.
She also took the time to specifically call out the fact that Valorant will continue prioritizing the player experience, specifically when it comes to being able to run the game on lower-end hardware. Often, as games and developers switch to a new game engine, like Unreal Engine 5, the minimum PC specifications start to rise rather quickly, and high frame rates are vital to a fast-paced, competitive game, like Valorant.
Some interesting info in the video