In Valorant there is currently some unrest among players regarding Riot’s marketing system. They find the prices misleading and criticize how the company handles it. Responses from the developers are being dismissed.
What currency is involved? Radianite is a second premium currency that players can purchase with Valorant Points, which in turn cost real money, or they can earn it in the Battle Pass.
Radianite is needed to upgrade skins and make them even cooler or to add reload animations. This means that already expensive skins for €95 can be further upgraded – and then cost almost €300.
What is the problem? User FaPaDa on reddit has expressed concerns about what he sees as a problematic presentation of Radianite prices in Valorant. He sees the issue as the fact that even the cheapest bundle with Radianite (20 units) is marked with a -20% price tag.
He already asks in the title if this isn’t the “definition of misleading marketing” and what these 20% are being deducted from at all. The cheapest package should actually indicate the base price, and the progressively higher ones then show the correct savings to avoid misleading players.
Players are angry – Riot wants more info
What the players say: The post has already received over 10,000 upvotes within two days. Many players and community members agree with FaPaDa. Terms like “predatory” are being used, and some users point out that countries like South Korea have already banned such marketing strategies.
The user sadboysthrowaway5295 hopes that Germany will follow this example – Here the handling of microtransactions is still stricter. Other users are calling for the complete abolition of Radianite.
One of the highest-rated comments in the post is from Lukuush, who writes: “The whole Radianite system is a scam in my eyes.” Users fear that players will be lured into purchasing through the false pricing with apparent bargains.
This is Riot’s response: In response to this comment, an employee from Riot clarifies that they are monitoring this issue and want to understand what players find problematic:
If we see something we want to know more about, we send out targeted surveys around a specific topic or even hold player labs to spark real discussions […] Radianite Points are one of those topics we want to dive deeper into right now. I don’t want to say more about it here, as it is clear that there is a strong opinion about this on Reddit, but we are not blind to the debate.
The comment has already gathered over 800 downvotes, which at least confirms the assumption that opinions on Reddit are quite polarized.
Is Radianite really a problem?
The fact that Riot’s views and those of the players sometimes differ is already shown by the debate about the importance of skills in Valorant. It is an endless task for Riot to satisfy all players.
The opinion of players on reddit does not always reflect the opinion of all players, and Valorant has far more than just 10,000 fans.
However, Radianite continues to cause excitement. Riot’s plans to investigate further and review the presentation at least indicate that they have heard the criticism.
Riot is also bringing new skins into the game with the upcoming Act 2 and the new Deathmatch mode. So there seem to be at least some players who are demanding it or looking forward to more cosmetics.
