The global competitive FPS Valorant will be switching to the next gen Unreal Engine 5, as per Anna Donlon, head of Valorant Studios. Donlon shared the update at the Unreal Fest event held yesterday.

Valorant has been running on Unreal Engine 4, more specifically the 4.27 version which was last released on August 19, 2021. So it isn’t too surprising that Riot would make this move to the newer generation game engine. In Donlon’s words, “We have squeezed literally every ounce of everything we could get out of UE 4, so now we make the move to UE5, and that is not an easy feat when your game is a live service game but it is necessary.”

The Valorant Studios chief assured everyone that the upgrade will not change the game or its appearance too significantly, "at least not right away". From her words, we can expect certain visual improvements here and there.

But as is the case with game upgrades, there have also been concerns about the game’s optimisation, especially for those on lower-end gaming rigs. However, Dolon reiterated Valorant and Riot’s commitment to celebrating and adhering to their global communities. “We want to support them by [letting the game] run on machine specs that sometimes feel downright uncomfortable and we wanted no one to feel like they were ever at a competitive disadvantage.”

Riot also plans to deliver new experiences as teased by Donlon. "Maybe those devs are thinking about ways to expand the Val universe into new playable experiences," she said. It wouldn’t be a long shot to speculate that these changes can look similar to bringing new game modes, or even playable stories. Some people have also theorised seeing massive game modes similar to Fortnite’s popular additions of LEGO Fortnite or Fortnite Festival.

Nevertheless, we can only wait and see what Riot Games has in store for the shooter game regarding its future.

Tahsin is a sub-editor at The Daily Esports.