Despite how cool some skins look, it seems Riot is really pushing Valorant fans in terms of how much they'd be willing to pay for them.
It seems Riot Games continues to push aggressive monetization more and more with each skin bundle. And it might reach a breaking point sooner rather than later.
The latest bundle, Radiant Entertainment System, pushes new boundaries in terms of cost, becoming the most expensive Valorant collection to date. No easy feat considering some previous ones have already cost upwards of $100.
This time, however, complaints are not directed towards the skin prices themselves, but rather the Radianite Point system, which is a somewhat arbitrary way of having players spend extra cash to unlock all VFX guns offer.
Is Riot Going Too Far With Valorant Monetization?
Listen, we understand Valorant, like many other Riot Games titles, is free-to-play, and they need to monetize it somehow. But also, they're far from a small indie company, so there comes a point when you have to stop and ask yourself - are they going too far?
Of course, you're not forced into buying skins, but after playing and investing hundreds (sometimes thousands) of hours, you're bound to desire a cute-looking cosmetic, whether to support the devs or because your favorite main/gun has a dope skin coming out.
In order to get the best out of your skins, you need to spend Radianite Points, a different kind of currency that's used specifically to buy upgrades that include access to Kill Banners, reload animations, and other types of stuff.
This currency is given only via the Battle Pass, otherwise, you have to use your hard-earned VP, the same currency you use to buy skins. The free track does offer some, 30 to be exact. Not quite enough to hoard and use on different skins, so basically, on top of paying what some described as overpriced cosmetics, you need to consider the cost of Radianite Points to even make the original purchase worthwhile.
In a Reddit thread, one user criticized Riot for this practice, with many others agreeing that Radianite Points are an unnecessary nuisance.
Is it not enough for 99% of the skins to be only usable through a purchase of some kind using real world money? Is Riot hurting that much for money that they need to lock aspects of a purchase behind another purchase? Sure, we get *SOME* Radianite Points (30 Measly Points...) on the free track of the Battle Pass. But the only real options are to buy the BP in order to get any decent amount of RP or outright buy them, but even then the cost per point is ludicrous, bordering on comical.
Reddit user u/WildRynoMk2 wrote. The thread has had plenty of positive reactions with hundreds of upvotes and many comments adding that Radianite is straight up a greedy concept.
Its crazy how greedy the radianite system is. This new battlepass is at least nice for a change. They have desperately needed to up the battlepass skins imo I have yet to buy a single one.
So there you have it! Do you agree with these "scummy" practices or you wish Riot would make skins more accesible?
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