Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest is off to a hot start. The Inside Xbox event revealed a slate of new games planned to come to the Xbox Series X, the Unreal Engine 5 reveal was incredible, and there’s so much more to come — in fact, Keighley has now revealed the next Summer Game Fest event. On May 21 at 8:00 am PT an announcement is now scheduled for Riot Games. The Valorant team has some special news to share, it seems.
The tweet confirming the event does a great job of not spoiling any details. All that’s said is that Valorant’s executive producer Anna Donlon and game director Joe Ziegler will be taking the lead. During the event, the two will provide “an update and [an] announcement.” The listing on the official Summer Game Fest website says virtually the exact same thing as the tweet.
Of course, Geoff Keighley and Riot don’t really need to say anything more. Valorant fans are already expecting a specific announcement, the confirmation of Valorant’s full launch, and its release date. Riot’s kept repeating that Valorant will be fully launching this summer, so a release date announcement has always been expected in the coming few months.
The online multiplayer shooter has been in Closed Beta for a month and a half now, having started on April 7. Day to day and week to week, Riot’s increased the number of players in the Valorant closed beta. The exact number of players currently participating hasn’t been made public, but it has to be sizeable right now. If the closed beta’s servers have held up under the growing new Valorant beta players, there’s no reason not to open the game up.
As far as when Valorant’s release date might be, it’s certain to be a surprise. It’s entirely possible that Riot is ready to go and Valorant could launch tomorrow alongside the event. Development may also have been impacted by COVID-19 and a later summer release date is in store.
It’s also possible that this isn’t a Valorant release date announcement at all, though that seems unlikely. Riot might instead by taking the opportunity to discuss how the closed beta has been going and to announces new mode or new characters. Regardless, Valorant fans should definitely watch the stream if they’re able. Hopefully, the event will deliver.
Valorant releases this summer on PC.
