Streaming star Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek has explained why Riot Games won’t follow in the footsteps of Valve and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive when it comes to a skin economy in Valorant.
Ever since it was announced back in October of 2019, Riot Games’ Valorant has grabbed the attention of gamers from across the globe – with incredible levels of hype building prior to the game’s closed beta period.
A number of streamers and other content creators have been able to get hands-on with the upcoming shooter, revealing their initial thoughts about what they’ve played. As a result, they’ve been able to delve into other details and answer questions from fans about what they’ve seen.
During a recent stream, shroud fielded a number of these questions – especially in relation to how it compares to CS:GO – seeing as the Mixer star was a long-time CS pro. Though, not everything was about gameplay.
“Do you think Valorant will have a CSGO skin economy? No f**king way. No, no way that happens,” he said. “Riot is the company that is behind Valorant, right, and the best way to view it is that they’re probably going to do something similar to League of Legends. There’s no way they would ever do something like Valve.”
Timestamp of 6:00 for mobile viewers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNR9po1NEN4&feature=youtu.be&t=359
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The Canadian added that Valve’s method is “very unique” and it’s unlikely that anyone else would follow in their footsteps. “It is super, super unique, and it is what makes Steam and Valve so successful. Not the games, but what is inside the game’s,” shroud noted.
“That sh*t is what is keeping Steam and Valve alive, you know what I mean. But, I also think it is way too risky of a model for any other game developer to attempt.”
Riot Games has already confirmed that the free-to-play FPS won’t have loot boxes and agent skins, with the focus being put on adding unique weapon skins.
Though, it appears that if players are hoping to collect them all, they better hope that they get incredibly lucky or that shroud is wrong.