Riot leaves door open for updating previously released Valorant skins

Riot Games continues to be open and answer fan questions about Valorant. In it's latest Ask Valorant post, the developer answered some pressing fan questions, and as it turns out, Riot is open to the idea of updating existing Valorant skin lines.

Will Riot update older Valorant skin lines?

First up, Riot again talked about the highly-requested left-handed models, which has been discussed in length in the past. Riot doesn't want left-handed models to have any sort of competitive edge, and the developer still has no timeframe for this feature.

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Another important question posed to the developer is if they are open to updating released Valorant skin lines.

The Spline melee skin (Picture: Riot Games)

The question gives a specific example of updating the Spline skin line by adding effects.

Riot Games answered: "We’re open to it! We’ve stated before that we’re potentially open to adding Variants to melees, so it’s not out of the question for us to update an existing skin line.

"It all comes down to how much players want it, how much work it is, and what things we don’t make as a result (weighing the trade offs)." 

Riot has previously stated they will be testing out variants on melee weapons, so there does seem to be some plans.

However, Riot further explained how adding effects to skin lines such as Spline is not an easy or a fast task to accomplish.

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Sean Marino, Art Lead, and Preeti Khanolkar, Producer, explains: "So, as of right now, we don't have plans to add feature-based upgrades (like VFX, new animations, or audio) to existing skins. Before we take on something like this, we want to make sure we're making changes players actually want, and that what we're doing is sustainable."

According to the developers, updating existing skin lines requires testing and research, which takes time as well as resources. 

In short, players might not see an update to existing Valorant skins for quite some time. If Riot goes back and works on previously released skin lines, this will take time away from working on "the next awesome thing that you're all waiting for".

Ultimately, Riot wants to prioritize the content their players want the most. So, they are open to updating existing skin lines but we shouldn't really hold our breath.