Valorant PS5 version won’t come with a popular feature because implementing it would put Xbox players at a disadvantage, according to Riot Games. The feature in question is gyro aim, which is supported by games like Call of Duty and Fortnite. However, Valorant’s lead developer Coleman Palm has confirmed that the popular multiplayer shooter won’t come with gyro support on consoles.
Adding gyro to Valorant would mean ‘heavily favoring’ PS5 over Xbox, says dev
During an exchange over on X, a fan pointed out that gyro aiming is as close as controllers can get to mouse-like input, and shouldn’t be overlooked. In response, Palm said that Xbox controllers don’t natively support gyro, so making it the standard way to play on consoles would give PS5 players an unfair advantage.
Not a blind spot for us fwiw, but it’s not supported on Xbox controllers natively. If we leaned super hard into gyro being “the way to play” on console we’d be heavily favoring PS5>Xbox, which we don’t want to do.Gyro tech is cool, especially with ratcheting, flick stick etc.— Coleman Palm (Altombre) (@Altombre) June 8, 2024
As expected, fans weren’t too happy with Palm’s response and pointed out that other cross-platform multiplayer games support gyro aiming, and quizzed why PS5 players have to be locked out of something because of lack of support on Xbox. Palm said that Riot isn’t “opposed to supporting it outright,” but wants to focus on standard controls to start with.
I can’t make any promises – game dev is complicated – but I just wanted to highlight that there are VAL devs excited about gyro (including myself!) and it’s not a blind spot for us, it just had enough speed bumps that it’s not where we wanted to invest heavily right out the gate— Coleman Palm (Altombre) (@Altombre) June 8, 2024
Unfortunately, Palm’s responses to fans seem very non-committal, so we wouldn’t hold our breath for gyro aim in Valorant.