The upcoming version 6.07 of VALORANT will be a fairly significant update, and with it will come a brand-new VALORANT bundle that will introduce skins that are all too familiar to you. Skins will be similar to those found in CS: GO included in the Black Market bundle. The skins will change appearance depending on whether the player currently participates in an offensive or defensive role.
Fans of the CS rival have been clamoring for this feature for a long time, but the creator, Riot Games, has made it clear that this isn’t something that will stick around for good.
There are CS: GO Skins Included in the VALORANT Bundle.
This is a facetious reference to the VALORANT’s most significant rival. Since it first appeared in 2020, VALORANT has been working nonstop to break free of the stranglehold that CS: GO has maintained on the industry. For the most part, it has been very successful in this endeavor. The esports scene and the general community supporting VALORANT have both seen rapid growth, but despite their successes, CS is still the most popular game in the world.
The Black Market bundle will be available for purchase in the VALORANT store on the 12th of April. This bundle will allow players to customize five weapons with eerily familiar skins. They accurately represent the weapons used in the real world and are nearly identical to the standard skins in CS: GO. The following items will be provided to players as part of the bundle:
- Black Market Bulldog (which becomes a FAMAS)
- Black Market Vandal (which becomes an AK47)
- Black Market Marshal (which becomes a Scout)
- Classic of the Black Market (which becomes a Glock 18)
- Black Market Knife (which becomes a butterfly knife)
However, this is not the end of the story.
That’s not all, though; for the first time, the player’s skin will alter according to the ‘side’ they are playing for in Counter-Strike, which is the game’s default setting.
Switch sides // Switch skins. The Black Market Bulldog, Vandal, Marshal, Classic and Butterfly Knife Melee have unique Defender and Attacker appearances. Bundle hits your shop April 12th. pic.twitter.com/MIKsW9Z0QD
— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) April 10, 2023
However, Associate Art Director Sean Marino explained why it had taken so long to introduce the mechanic, speaking on the strain, it would put on systems: “This has been a feature that players have wanted for a long time.”
Although to tell you the truth, we have yet to perform the full load test to determine what the effect on memory would be if every player could load in with multiple skins, there are some assumptions that we can make. We want players to be able to jump right into the action, and we don’t want there to be a lot going on in the background that slows them down or prevents them from doing so. More memory means a higher requirement for the memory capacity of the player’s hardware.
To put it another way, mathematically speaking, each player brings eighteen skins into each game. That comes out to 180 skins for ten players competing in a match, which is reasonable considering load times and other performance constraints.
This number will rise thanks to the Black Market bundle, but the increase will be minimal given that not every player can access that bundle. However, if Riot were to make it so that every player can have different skins for both attack and defense teams, it would permanently increase the count to 360. The developer believes that this would have a negative impact on both performance and load times.
On the 12th of April, players will be able to obtain the Black Market bundle, but its cost is currently unknown. Players will be able to get their hands on the bundle.
