Valorant Episode 3 landed with a lot of fanfare surrounding KAY/O. However, with things grinding to a halt outside of the Sentinels of Light crossover, players are wanting more. Riot is looking to change that up in future Episodes and Acts to stop the content drought.
Outside of each Episode or Act launch in Valorant, there’s not a whole lot to get excited about. The bi-monthly content drops usually give players a little tidbit into the game’s lore and introduce a new Agent or map.
However, for the weeks between launches, it can be a painstaking wait. Outside of a skin bundle here or there, players have professed that there’s not much to get excited about.
This angst has hit fever pitch during the Sentinels of Light crossover event. While not based in the League of Legends universe, there’s a big crossover between Valorant and League’s fandom.
The two skin lines were a nice touch, but it left players wanting compared to what was released in other games like Legends of Runeterra.
Riot have acknowledged the shortcomings, and say future Valorant Episodes and Acts won’t fall victim to the same content droughts.
“Often we are putting so much time and energy into landing those big drops (new agents, new maps) and then we barely recover before working on the next one,” creative director David Nottingham admitted on Twitter.
“We want to build a stronger muscle to be able to put out big content, intermediate, and also steady small drops. It takes time because we need to build in sustainable ways.
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“As we build our content muscle we can increase the range of content drops so it’s not just big but also intermediate and small resulting in [a] more steady stream.”
Will have more discussions about what we are doing to get content to folk. Definitely lighter than I would like right now, but we are also laying down tracks for stuff that I believe will provide more of what you are asking for. Keep an eye out for the next act.
— David Nottingham (@davidnotty) July 27, 2021
This includes releasing more lore related content in between Acts — like cinematics — instead of just a new skin line every few weeks.
Riot wants to keep some open questions around lore “to explore them at a future point when [they] can meaningfully tap into a backstory”, but they’re looking at changing up the pacing to please players.
“[We] will have more discussions about what we are doing to get content to folk. Definitely lighter than I would like right now, but we are also laying down tracks for stuff that I believe will provide more of what you are asking for. Keep an eye out for the next act,” Nottingham said.
Speaking of next Act, Valorant Episode 3 Act 2 is primed to drop on August 24. What new content is on its way remains to be seen, but this promise is sure to get players excited.