Valorant Skins are Way Too Overpriced

The role I seem to always play in games is the victim, with how much I have spent on in-game cosmetics.

Even having wasted four years on that game, as the game’s loyal fan, their skins (a type of cosmetic) are way too overpriced. This especially applies to their rarer skins, the exclusive and ultra editions skins.

Valorant’s general audience is teenagers and young adults, who include beginner FPS (first-person shooter) gamers, and Gen Zs who have grown up playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

However, with how young this audience is, they generally earn little to no salary because they have either recently graduated or are still studying. This brings back back to my question: why are their skins so expensive?

For reference, the exclusive and ultra edition skins are skins with fancy decorations and animations. An example of exclusive edition and ultra edition skins would be the Splash X and Evori Dreamwings skin bundles, respectively.

One weapon skin costs around 2125 Valorant Points on average, which is roughly US$25. Each bundle has at least five weapons, totaling up to a whopping US$120.

I would consider a reasonable weapon skin price to be around 1000 to 1500 Valorant Points, which is roughly US$11 to US$17, which does not place a strain on the buyer’s wallet while giving profit to the company.

Of course, the prices may vary across different countries and skin varieties. However, the price difference is at best a dollar between currencies, and the cheaper skins have practically no special effects, making them totally unworthy of purchase. For example, the Wasteland bundle, which has me wondering if anyone genuinely likes it:

Regardless, players are expected to pay a significant amount for one measly weapon skin.

“I have enough hope that Riot (Games) is good enough to take criticism, and (the skin prices) deserve (criticism).”

– Dittozkul on YouTube about Valorant Skin Prices

Furthermore, Valorant’s skin quality usually does not match its set price, especially due to the lazy efforts placed into newer bundles, reusing skin animations and decorations.

One example of Valorant reusing a gun animation was on the Neo Frontier and Arcane Sheriffs. The Arcane was the first Sheriff skin to apply a special twirling finger inspection animation for the gun. However, Valorant later applied it to the Neo Frontier sheriff, a gun bundle that was released months after:

In another instance, for reused designs, there was the RGX and Reaver Karambit:

This repetition of reusing skins eventually became a half-hearted attempt at a quick cash grab by Valorant.

While the spending habits of their audience are not Valorant’s responsibility, I do feel that overall perhaps Riot Games should consider lowering the game’s prices.