Awaken the Sleeping Giant: Chinese Government has approved Valorant’s release in China

Enter the Sleeping Giant

The news is in, and China will be joining the fray in Valorant servers soon. According to the National Press and Publication Administration in China, Riot Games’ Valorant has been approved and available to play soon in the country.

Valorant joins the other Riot Games’ titles as available games approved to be played in China, meaning regular Chinese gamers will finally have access to the title FPS. The official Weibo account for Valorant announced the news, along with release of a trailer celebrating the fact.

The recognized name for Valorant in China will be 无畏契约 (pronounced: Wúwèi qìyuē). Moreover, the trailer and excited reactions from the general community and Chinese community especially lends great anticipation of things to come. In sister game League of Legends, the LPL (professional league for China), is considered one of the strongest regions, producing some of the most legendary competitors of the game.

Moreover, in Valorant, the debut of Chinese team EDWard Gaming broke viewership records at the time in their opening match against Paper Rex. This shows that there is a huge untapped market of interested parties waiting in the wings, and with this approval, China could very well be entering the arena as a mighty beast now.

Despite Tribulations

Despite tribulations and trials in competing and practicing, a number of Chinese professional teams have managed to crop up, including EDWard Gaming, who competed at Champions earlier this year.

According to reports, up until now, Chinese players have had to make use of a virtual private network (VPN) in order to connect to Hong Kong servers to play the game. Furthermore, the Chinese government also implemented strong measures that limited time spent on video games. Video game licenses faced a temporary suspension last August, as Beijing issues a suspension to all regulators on the game approval process.

In April, license issuing was resumed for homegrown games, and now the approval of foreign games, including multiple titles issued to Tencent Holdings sees that last regulation finally fall. As the world’s largest gaming market, Riot has long enjoyed the massive playerbase and market for their games, including popular titles such as League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics. The largest change means that Chinese players should now be able to access Valorant servers within China rather than through the use of a VPN.

Image credit: Riot Games