people saying that hes broke have no common sense, why would you spend your money on something that everyone collectively agrees isn't worth its value??
everyone knows there are two different teams. its resource management. If the skin dev team is making them enough money, they will not ask the game dev team to innovate and wont hire new staff. they are probably made to idle around and give us the same updates every few months. so it does actually make a lot of sense
@@jimincos RIOT is owned by Tencent, rich Chinese company. They are 100% doing well. Additionally the skin prices, if they aren't doing well with that its cooked. Skins don't have to be that expensive, and if they want to keep the price high then atleast introduce new content or bring new stuff. not just copy paste skins.
Yeah, there are people that usually reply "Just stfu if u don't have money to spend", "We buy it because we can", etc. in the other video that has similar topic. Hmmm…
@@idclol2883 Okay but you see where bro is coming from. That’s all that matters he shouldn’t be getting all this hate for pointing out that riot’s quality is going down while prices are going up.
I feel u brother. i bought an valo account for 23 doller for the prime vandal(all skins completely upgraded), prime phantom and a ghost skin(cant remember the name). It was probably the only time i will buy skin in this game. It's not worth spending 90 doller on something that makes u spend more money.
in Egypt like 300 dollar is like 300 3 months salary for average so you supposed to eat and drink and pay rent and live and get family and after all of this buy some skins bullshit
You are completely right! Reasons why Riot Games makes weapon skins more expensive in Valorant (in my opinion) - There are no character skins or character accessories (cloaks, gloves, backpacks, etc.) in the game. Their only source of income is the battle pass and the night market. - Valorant is losing players. That's why they sell lower quality but more expensive weapon skins to the remaining players. - Valorant gives free VP and RP to e-sports players and streamers so that "they can advertise the skins". These advertisements worked for regular players (us) to some extent. But now, don't work anymore. Thanks to everyone who read this far. Please correct me if I'm missing/wrong 😊.
great points man! the accessory ideas would actually be great to have in this game, although i doubt they will implement anything really new anymore :/
one more, Counter Strike exist, and the skins there can be several time more expensive (because it has real value) so unsuspecting people will thought that spending money on val is better than cs because they didn't know that cs's skin is basically an NFT that holds its own value
Not just the currency is a scam, but the match making itself IS a scam. Rigged matches (comebacks, clutches, desync, RNG etc.) just to keep all players in both teams engagement high so that all of them will get addicted to the game, and in return hopefully they will buy skins. How pro players dont address this? well they have signed a contract prohibiting them from saying this, otherwise they will be threatened with lawsuits from riot games
Yes but that’s why skins are so expensive they have no other way of making money the only money they get is from skins and the battle pass which is a reason for I high price now 95 dollars for exo is a scam entirely but if we had character skins then skin prices would most likely go down (if you disagree with my opinion then come have a civil conversation with me in the comments however I won’t respond to adults or little children with smooth brains who just call me a idiot and type in all caps thank you 😊)
Not just the currency is a scam, but the match making itself IS a scam. Rigged matches (comebacks, clutches, desync, RNG etc.) just to keep all players in both teams engagement high so that all of them will get addicted to the game, and in return hopefully they will buy skins. How pro players dont address this? well they have signed a contract prohibiting them from saying this, otherwise they will be threatened with lawsuits from riot games
My friend, tho understanding the problems with the monetization of the game, still hasn't quit, i sent him one of your videos and he really liked it and we were able to talk more about this subject, and i think he's starting to understand that riot is NOT the little angel everyone thinks they are, so, thanks, really for making these videos lad !
no problem! and thanks for the comment! thats all my videos are about. i dont need to convert people to my opinion, just wanna open up discussions to the topic :)
@@DrizzleGT Probably the worst argument ever, you can, yes not buy skins, but the problem is still here, riot is still horribily greedy and wants to siphon your wallet, but you can have your opinion...
@CroqueMonsieur67 I'm saying it's weird to try and talk your friend out of playing a game they enjoy Soley because of Your opinion on the micro transactions in it, if they like Valorant and aren't Paying for skins and are playing the game because they enjoy it then the prices of skins shouldn't ever be a problem or a thing that even bothers you your allowing Riot to take your money lol, you can literally just not give your money to them
@CroqueMonsieur67 I'm not saying Riot isn't Greedy because yes they are, but that means Literally nothing to somebody who isn't paying for skins or battlepasses anyway, it's literally water under a bridge to me if your paying for 95$ bundles then complaining you spent 90$ that's 100% your decision to pay for that
@@Mister_Arkhamwhy tf everyone talks about mental health😂 if u are a chill guy playing with good aim and mute team if toxic bro this game is fun af😂. U ppl who talk about mental health should growup😂
Not just the currency is a scam, but the match making itself IS a scam. Rigged matches (comebacks, clutches, desync, RNG etc.) just to keep all players in both teams engagement high so that all of them will get addicted to the game, and in return hopefully they will buy skins. Thats the main reasons behind those score patterns and the rise of egirls gamers. Player base was significantly increased, a success from riot. How pro players dont address this? well they have signed a contract prohibiting them from saying this, otherwise they will be threatened with lawsuits from riot games
@@aMnezia bro what the yap. The gameplay (clutches, combacks etc) Are a part of the game they are in all games? How is it rigged if the players are controlling the game stupid
Same man. I hated playing rank because of hoe toxic the playerbase is. You always have a troll, a smurf or someone that throws the game. But the only other option they have is quick match and escalation. These modes are not nearly fun enough to motivate me into keeping playing. Eventually, the only thing inwas looking forward too was the nightmarket. But wven that hype fell off real soon. Stopped playing for over a year now. I am glad that people are finally talking about this. Maybe riot will finally try fixing their game before it’s too late
@@t_raywen8750 what rank were you? As a high silver almost low gold, in my last like 10 games I haven't noticed a smurf, and no one has trolled/threw the game for a long time
Apart from premium skins, I don't understand people's obsession with riot gun buddy. It feels like people have been conditioned to obsess over anything basic as long as it is rare to get.
yeah, the mentality of fans at this point is mostly: "be happy with what we have", so people gotta make themselves believe that these buddies are good xD. i mean i wouldnt mind them but the problem is the price and the fact that they're still one of the biggest cosmetics after 4 years
When I started playing I saw “2-3k for a single skin” and I was like “oh that makes sense that’s probably like 4-5 bucks and their currency is just really inflated”. Little did I know
Im a cs player guilty of buying a knife, but having to pay extra for weapon animations is criminal. Riot should also at least let people trade these skins if they insist on making them so expensive for no reason.
yeah and they keep comparing val prices with cs prices like " but i dont have to spend 1000$ just for 1 knife".Idk why they don't compare it with anything have similar store system like Fornite for example .Cs prices is high for a reason , there is no reason for Val skins to be this high
Fun fact is, Valorant was called out back in 2020 for selling overpriced skins but ever since then, fans and journos stopped talking about it and pretended as if it wasn't an issue in the first place and ngl tho, i played valorant for 4 yrs and its been a hell of a fun game..but the fact that Riot sells skins without even allowing free-to-play users to earn the skin with grind is insane..same for them being overpriced asf.. Ever since they added clove, i completly stopped playing it cuz these devs(and fans too) can't take a single criticism and silence ya for saying stuff like these..
I spent around 250+ $ in this game and i still stopped playing it because the game is just so toxic and full of smurfs also fking overpriced skins are annoying i will say it was my best decision to never play it again. Good for you if you will never play this game again congratulations on getting a life 🎉
Not just the currency is a scam, but the match making itself IS a scam. Rigged matches (comebacks, clutches, desync, RNG etc.) just to keep all players in both teams engagement high so that all of them will get addicted to the game, and in return hopefully they will buy skins. How pro players dont address this? well they have signed a contract prohibiting them from saying this, otherwise they will be threatened with lawsuits from riot games
1:10 Adjusted for inflation, $71 in 2020 is equal to $87 in 2025. So for a baseline bundle you’re only paying $8 more, but it’s still ridiculous to increase the price of something worth $87 to $95. $90 would be a tolerable price, but $95 is really pushing it.
Agree I didn’t want to do the math but the prices for groceries have went up so much in America that companys have to start asking for more money the reason why the skins are so expensive is because that’s riots main and only source of revenue from valorant
The gun skins are quite acceptable because imo the new skins suk ahh and just take any vandal with effects in comparison Prime, reaver, Glitchpop and maybe also Elderflame ( although it's overpriced asf atleast it gives a new weapon design ) all are better than this sht ( Ik I could have taken gaia's vengeance, Kuronami, Araxys but imo they r also 2 expensive for quality )
Comp is a scam too. Matchmaking is actually rigged. If you won too many games in a row and are about to rank up, the game will put you against Smurfs or duos/ 3 stacks and give you horrible team mates. You can actually tell when riot is rigging your game, if the last few games you queued took under 2 mins to put you in a lobby and the next game takes like 5 minutes, that’s riot assembling the worst possible team mates for you. It works like that in league of legends too. Riot doesn’t want you to stop playing. If you’re in a gold lobby in valorant about to rank up to plat and you lose to a smurfing bronze that drops 40+ kills, you lose 30 rr, Making the last 3 games you won a complete waste of time.
Not just the currency is a scam, but the match making itself IS a scam. Rigged matches (comebacks, clutches, desync, RNG etc.) just to keep all players in both teams engagement high so that all of them will get addicted to the game, and in return hopefully they will buy skins. How pro players dont address this? well they have signed a contract prohibiting them from saying this, otherwise they will be threatened with lawsuits from riot games
happy a lot of people are talking about this, i don't play valorant enough to care for skins, but as you and others mention, if one big video game (valorant) up their prices, it allows other games/companies to up their prices because now its normalized, and id hate for people to value crappy product with such high costs
Totally agree, these bundle prices are already at a crazy high amount of money. Just for players to have spend even more for upgrades. Its ridiculous. Thanks for opening peoples eyes.
I noticed this from the start. I bought some skins because at that time I didn't mind giving them some money in return for the entertainment I get. Over the 2-3 years I spent around $200 on a few skins and battlepasses. A bit more than I'd like, but I don't regret it. Nowadays I don't see the point of buying more skins. I can surely afford them, but I don't want to encourage this kind of greed and deceit. As long as I have a few friends I can play with in a fun way, I'll keep playing valo. I can trade skins with others during games from time to time and that's enough for me. Hopefully more people will think like that after videos such as yours expose these tactics. I was never bought skins for the purpose of flexing or to have the latest thing, I only bought some skins that I liked because I liked them, and I only got more decent skins for the guns I use most, the least used guns can stay with the battlepass skins.
I feel like a lot of these comments are from ppl who don’t play the game, or not frequently. If it’s a hobby (not that healthy, but oh well), spending $200 is absolutely normal. I prolly spent twice as much, and while it’s also a bit more than I’d like, it’s worth the dopamine I got. Ppl with basic understanding would know it’s a scam the moment they’re faced with the option of buying RP, or just simply continue playing the game or buy BPs. But that moment rarely comes, with the average player not shilling at the newest shiniest skins. I’ll admit skins have gotten much worse, value wise, but just simply don’t buy them if YOU think they aren’t worth it.
@@Mister_Arkham so my short backstory with riot i start playing lol back in 2019 or so i stop playing in um 2023 or so when vanguard was forced into lol lets just say that vanguard was worse then any computer virus . yes i know that lol did have a greedy system but comparing it to what they push now a.k.a remove the loot boxes and blue asset's completely yeah ... i think i will play hero's of the storm at this point. run Terra also a game from riot Duse sami suffers from the same greed no free skins no free emote not even a free currency where you can buy stuff over time. ALSO THEY TURN MY BOY VIKTOR INTO A GAY ALIEN 👾.. i only play rune terra at best ugh...
@@Mister_Arkham i just started playing rivals a few days ago with my D3 friend we're both pretty good at it, but one major problem with the game is controller and mobile players, the aim assist is literally a combination of aibot and triggerbot all in one. you could prolly connect a keyboard and mouse to it and cheat the system. We were grinding WS on alts but an aim assist mob duo barely took it.
That's why I stopped buying skins after 2.0s. I almost got into the rabbit hole and I saw it from far away that this game company is making me mad overtime
I feel like the radianite argument is a bit nuanced. That being said it is actually insane FOMO that nobody seems to see. By playing the game you get radianite, by having radianite youll ask what you can do with it, after asking that youll find out its used to upgrade skins and it costs money. That makes you think you should buy a skin because you are getting a discount in your eyes which is not true at all. Sorry for bad english i need to go sleep
While I get your frustrations, and agree that the skins are overpriced, they aren't a 'scam'. You pay an amount, and you get the skin you paid for. If someone struggles to see the radianite system--which I also think is ridiculous system, mind you--when it's pretty obvious on the store screen, that's their own fault for not doing their due diligence when shilling out money for a £20 skin. Trying to cite a nebulous metric like "quality" is meaningless in this case, because it's pretty much entirely subjective how much you think a skin is worth, which determines whether you buy it in the first place. If you think the Reaver Vandal is worth £15, then you aren't going to buy it, if you think it's worth £30 then you probably will. The hapless strawmanning and pretentious violin don't make your argument more convincing. You say things like the "gameplay isn't what keeps people interested, the skins are" without citing anything that backs it up. Perhaps the stupidest point in this whole video, is blaming the consumers for the fact that companies will do anything to increase profit margins. That's what they exist to do, they don't give a shite about your "room to breath" or "access to the game" or "your fun", they exist to line shareholder pockets. This is how monopolies work, and why Riot can increase their prices. Where else will someone go to play a CS-Like Hero Shooter? Nowhere. And really the final thing, is you do nothing to address an actual point. You don't *have* to buy these skins, and calling the people who make this argument shallow minded is moronic. You act like this is them excusing Riot's shitty practices, but it's just a perfectly valid point. I've got plenty of hours, and never needed to buy a skin. If there's anything about Riot that should be called out, it's their transparently bad refund policy. *That* is scummy, the rest of it is also scummy, but it's the kind of scum-baggery that all companies take part it. Makes you think, maybe the problem isn't Valorant players or Riot in specific, but that we use an economic system that promotes this kind of exploitative behaviour. I guess it's more fun to miss the forest for the trees tho. 🥴
It’s simple, the parent company Riot doesn’t care about their player base. Even a greedy company like EA is more generous with their monetization and they are known to be one of the greediest companies out there. If you play Apex, you’ll know that they offer ways to earn free skins by playing the game. Are they extremely flashy? No, but they are good looking non-the-less. You can get free Apex drops as well and eventually craft event items for free. When has Riot ever even remotely provided something good to their long lasting players? Never. Not a single thank you. Just a bunch of shitty backgrounds and terrible looking gun charms that nobody wants. Now look at successful long running games like Fortnite. Always developing new game-modes and community events. Providing a sandbox experience where competitive and non-competitive players can thrive. Providing free skins and variants of existing skins to existing players. Constantly looking for new collaborations and opportunities through research and development. This is why games ran by greedy corporate bottomline companies are failing while ones that aren’t afraid to invest in the future are thriving. Now, going into conspiracies, I believe there is a more intricate reason why Riot refuses to release a replay system. Their excuse is that the game “wasn’t built to have one” but that makes zero sense. Black Ops 1 from the CoD franchise had a functional one in 2010. Marvel Rivals made replays a huge ideal even allowing you to directly post your in-game clips to TikTok and other platforms. This will only create more social engagement for the game and drive more people to try it out after seeing it on their feeds. So why hasn’t Riot done this? Simple. Their main selling point/niche is based around Vanguard, their state-of-the-art anti-cheat that supposedly bans most cheaters. However, if you are a long time gamer, you’ll know that it isn’t that easy to stop cheaters especially with external hardware cheats and spoofers. If a functional replay system was active, I believe more people would start to realize that Vanguard is nothing more than a way to brainwash players into believing their favourite game is stopping cheaters when in reality, there are tons of them. Most people believe cheaters are all rage-botters who spin around in circles or only hit headshots when most are smart and only use small cheats to enhance their gameplay. That is why it’s impossible to distinguish between a cheating Immortal who’s really Gold and an actual Immortal. Only with a functioning replay system, would players be able to dissect micro-movements and aim to really see what’s going on like in Counterstrike or any other game. But that would be counterintuitive for Riot. That would make their mighty “Vanguard” look useless, especially since it constantly runs as soon as our computer boots. Most players who play because of integrity and a need for competition will realize there is nothing distinguishing with Vanguard versus Valve and move away to other games.
@@Legac706yea canadian dollars have less value, so everything is more expensive over there. But up to 200$ is insane. Never saw something like this before even for Canada
Here’s my opinion: I’ve been playing CS:GO since the old days, and I had a great time. The only reason I quit was because of cheaters and the complete lack of a real anti-cheat. Then I switched to Valorant during the beta, and for a while, it felt like the best FPS experience something fresh and exciting. But now? Riot only cares about esports and completely ignores the actual player base. Constant nerfs ruin the game, and it feels like they’re copying Ubisoft’s awful balancing decisions. Skins are another joke $71 to $95 for cosmetics? That’s straight-up robbery. Most people don’t even buy them because they like them; they just want to flex. I fell for that scam too and regretted it. Riot is heading down the same greedy path as EA. The game is dry as hell same recycled content, nothing worth grinding for. They refuse to add anything meaningful for veteran players, and at this point, it’s just the same repetitive garbage. Valorant had potential, but Riot killed it. Not a bad video, keep doing your thing!
so true about the Flex though. Who is actually going to use that thing mid-game? But now it contributes to a bundle's value even though it's completely useless.... good stuff. I remember thinking Valorant price skins on launch were egregious, especially with radianite. But the addition of useless flex items for pure bloat are just a cherry on top
As a passionate Valorant fan, I really want this video to go viral to save Valorant. I don't want a game with a good story to die just because of the greed of the people who make them. Thank you, I love this video.
In Valorant, if you buy a $90 skin bundle, after 5 years, it's still a $90 skin bundle (aside from maybe a sale). In CS2, if you buy a $200 knife, after 5 years, you can sell that knife and maybe buy a car.
Thank God I only bought a Vandal and a knife skin despite being addicted for 2-3 years. But now that I've stopped playing Valorant, I feel like why did I spend that money on a game I could have used that money in a better way.
in CS2, having even your pistol out movement speed is very similar to knife. No knife skin? get cheap cool pistol skin. never hold knife out. done lmao
I totally agree with you. Initially when I started to play i didn't want to spend anything. Later on i thought battlepass is ok for me and then now i came to a place where it felt its the only game i play and it's ok to spend. So i got 3 skins now. But as you mentioned Radianite points are scam. Bundle price is ridiculous now. Absolutely trash now. Day by day i see its getting worse. Flex just doesn't make sense at all. I hope they make bundles like reaver and introduce new animation, styles. But exo is absolutely trash for having comet style with no hard work put in to it.
5:38 you started speaking the purest form of facts i've ever saw in my life, I thought it was just about valorant, but then you acknowledge the fact that this was self-inflicted, this greed is the result of being flexible/blindly loyal with now soulless companies (EA, Bethesda, Riot, etc.) Good vid bro, keep up the good work!
I agree-as someone who buys skins, they upcharged the bundles and made them lower quality. And after all that, people still buy skins. Don't get me wrong, the new Helix bundle looks sick, but why would I spend $70 for Flex? That’s just bad. It doesn’t even have styles. A buddy that costs around $3-5, a player card that was upcharged, and two skins with one knife-out of those, I’d maybe use the Phantom, but only when I upgrade it. By the time I get around to upgrading it, I’ll have forgotten about the skin. I have the Valiant Hero Vandal in my inventory, and I still haven’t started upgrading it. I bought it when Iso came out, so yeah, I get the scam. But the people defending Riot are just crazy. “Just grind the BP.” It’s just 130 Radianite! As you said, I would need double that to upgrade the whole bundle. I just don’t get the people defending Riot.
i dont get it either man. and yeah i would have no problem with these things, like you said, if they were just cheaper. but they upsell them like its better than a full AAA game lmao
I tried val when it was first launched and yes it was extremely fun, but I gave up after they added the 11th agent because I knew there would be a rotating meta like there is in league of legends. CS2 has been the exact same game for 2 decades now. Its a winning formula. Now im hearing from my mates who quit val are complaining about their favourite agent being out of the meta or some characters being too op etc. I never spent money in the game and a reason for that is because they tie the skins to your account, you cant trade or sell them. My friends who quit have $500+ lost on a free game whereas in cs2 my inventory has appreciated by $2,000 in just 2 years alone all the while I enjoy them in-game and can sell them for profit to enjoy other hobbies (or invest it) when that time comes
I think valorant is a dead ass game now people just play it because they have bought skins... The maps are boring .. The agents are all fucked up and just fk this game d0g i quit after hitting immo 3 back to cs 2 hahaha
finally, some1 who is taking the truth "its too expensive". u earned my respect and a sub. this is the sole reason i nvr buy skin, i just play it like i want to let off my steam.
Also CS skin prices come from rarity aswell as how many are sold/wanted by players. You can resell skins to get most of the value back aswell. Theres no way to compare those skins. lmao
i have 1000 radianite saved since episode 1 act 3. Anyway you are speaking facts 95 dollars that a triple A game , a full bundle is a gpu i have 2 skins i regret buying em
5:45 to be fair games now days cost very little because for example 60 dollar game in 2018 was 76 dollars in todays dollars or in 2016 when 60 dollar games were every single triple A game and when this was new it would be the 80 dollars that it is now for just a few games while most games are only 70 dollars that means 70 dollar games are 10 dollars cheaper than a 60 dollar game bought in 2016
he is extactly right in korea server they cant buy radiantie point with money they have events that give out free radianite points. valorant does this because of a law in korea that makes games only have one currency to buy with real money
While I still do play the game, I made the decision to avoid buying any cosmetics because they aren't really worth the money. The recent bundles really solidifed the point. I'm not going to give Riot Games any money. Not getting the skins I like is going to be a fair trade for that.
totally agreed, when i switched to valorant few months ago, i knew that the prices are extremely high and knew that i would only ever buy 1 vandal skin, 1 phantom and 1 knife, an no more, bought imperium vandal, and blackmarket butterfly (love csgo), just waiting for moment to buy a good phantom skin in shop.
I kept telling my friends they shouldn't buy every bundle and battle pass since I already know how greedy Riot is. Now some of them are complaining about the bundle's cost without knowing it was part of their fault.
Just hear me out my friend and i play valo from time to time Hes spent money on skins over and over again and is using his rx 580 with a ryzen 5 1600 while ive saved up enough for a 7600x/9070xt(waiting for announcement)or 7900xt
The thing i realised about the radianite is that its to capitalise on big spenders, so called "big whales" in sales distribution. Radianite is only needed for people who regularly buy skin bundles. If you Bought a skin bundle once you propably had some Radianite even from free side of pass. But people who spend like 120$ a Month on skins have to pay even more for riot to upgrade its bundles. So yeah its maximasing profits to the extreme and I still can't understand how these bundles even sell. It even come to the point that all they do is balance the game once in a while and throw random bundles for 100 dollars every two weeks. Insane that this game is still relevant and making profit
the 2000 credits bundle (which is the one that is the minimum bundle that can get you by on skins) costs 4 to 10 weeks worth of allowance here in my country.
Valorant's pricing model is honestly absurd, and more people should talk about it. If we compare it to AAA games, where a full game costs around $60-$80, Valorant bundles often go for $90-$100. That’s insane for just cosmetics in a free-to-play game.What’s worse is the decline in quality. Older 1775 VP skins used to look clean and well-designed, but now, the same price range feels underwhelming. If you want a decent-looking skin, you're forced to pay 2175 VP or more. The overall quality of bundles has dropped significantly, yet the prices remain high.Despite this, many people blindly defend Riot’s pricing model. The lack of criticism allows them to keep pushing overpriced, low-effort skins. This isn’t just expensive-it’s a scam, and the community should be talking about it more.
Riot made Valorant skins are expensive because CS skins are usually more expensive, but the thing is CS skins can be traded and bought while valorant skins can't
as someone who plays a lot of cs, it's funny for me to see how the valorant skin situation had evolved. When the game released and I criticised the skin system, people kept defending it by saying it's more affordable and better value. Now I see friends of mine spend upwards of 300$ and 40$+ per skin on the game, while I've been swapping between almost all the skins I loved in csgo with 100$, which has now gone up to 140$ in value without me having to do anything. Hell, I could afford around 190$ of skins with just cases I earnt for free alone if I didn't want to pay anything. All in all I just think it's funny that this system was hailed to be so much more affordable than csgo while ending up like this
I lost my faith in humanity when I found out that people are willing to pay £70 to an electrician to change a light bulb in the house. Just no sense in value of the money 🤦♂️
what's funnily ironic is that most players ignore the skin from the bundle and only there for the radianite points, as if riot predicted it and make really bad skins for the bundle.
first thing i realized with val and ive only played for like two months on and off with my friends. i havent bought a single skins, and i think its stupid, and would be stupid to buy one. havent even gotten battlepass, it feels completely irrelevant. ive spent thousands of dollars on skins on csgo and my friends still trade, but i dont play the game anymore so i dont see a reason to. i was a shit player and csgo too many cheaters, but val is cool, not that good either but im learning. ill stick to picking up skins for now.
Instead of bombarding riot about the replay system in their comments, we should start with their ridiculous prices. Which of course includes not buying the skins anymore…like really
When i saw kingdom credits being added, i knew it was a terrible decision. When i saw that it had a limit of 10k, i knew it was over. Grinding xp for agent rewards was fun. Not being able to stock pile a bunch of credits to unlock the later rewards in one go sucks and is one (of many) reasons why i dont play anymore.
Hey! I am a counter strike player and only played valorant for about 200h and quit it over a year ago but i have really been enjoying your videos about valorant. many of the reasons i stayed true to CS are in these videos. i would rather spend my money in a game where good skins cost hundreds, rather than incrementally spending hundreds in valorant that i cant sell. Great video, i hope the valorant community can pressure the devs to not see their playerbase as just wallets waiting to be emptied
I was playing Valorant in 2021-2023. It was new and refreshing from games like CS:GO. 4 years later, its still the same game but with more money to spend on useless stuff. Nothing new besides maps no one likes and unbalanced, uncreative agents. Literally no reason to play this game besides being a content creator or esport athlete.
that last part is especially true. its like they only care about their esports secene and making money. of course its important but cmon man, at least give your players something
I absolutely agree. What I think is interesting that we all talk about “value”. Don’t think there is. I also like beautiful things and art but it is hard for me to project a concept of “value” on to something such commercially exploited
I only buy the "Champion" Bundles, no point wasting money on other bundles due to stupid prices, I rather waste it on a single bundle a year which is Champion and Team capsule. That's the only money I spent on Valorant. At the end of the day, Skins are just cosmetic, nice to have but not necessary.
The more i see these videos the more it opens my eyes honestly. Helps me to stop myself from buying bs skins in a game which will be stuck in the game forever. Not like there is not much to buy with the degrading quality of skins. Copy pasted bs.
Good video i defiantly agree with you on some of the topics you have spoken about. 1. Are velorant skins overpriced? In my opinion most of the new skins should be priced around the 1750 vp range that some bundles used to be also as a player it was very obvious with some bundles they released like the VCT//LOCK IN one or the new year bundle last year (xerofang) or the one you showed in your video that they keep on increasing the prices and try to figure out what people are willing to spend 2. the Radianite price Is that stuff stupid expensive if you buy it? YES DONT!!! I have spend about 400-500€ on skins in that game and never bought any outside of the battlepass the way i always saw it was they want you to buy the battlepass when you see the price on Radianite. that would make you play more what might end in you buying even more skins and for the people that buy so many skins that the pints they get from playing arent enough its likely that they will pay the high price as well 3. FOMO you didn't mention it in your video but its another predatory business move that they use every item you can buy in a store in valorant has a timer that starts with the shop reset every day and even the "free" assessor store resets pluss you get the items like the vct skins or the arcane stuff that is only available for a short amount of time and is never available again think that is all i had in the end i still play the game and still pay for skins I do think you oversimplified some of the things and maybe if you make another video like this try to go more into detail and try to explain it more cos this just felt like a rant and not a video that tries to explain a very real and important situation the game is in
i got a free accout from my friend with some skins like 3 or sum and i spent more money buying other skins just them to delete it so i gave them free money and they took my account its actually a scam
I agree with this, even as a Valorantpalyer who bought skins for around 150-200$. It is an obvies scam with the flex and the bundels. And i still think that some skins are god but not worth there money. I think the best way to deal with that is to buy skins u want but not in a way were u have like 10 skins for some guns. For the point with the upgrade system, just dont buy these and wait until u get them free to play.
im ngl i was deep into buying skins to the point where id always buy any bundle that comes out even though it was mid, the fomo in this game is crazy, i agree to you 100% and everything you said. - no one asked for flex, and even if they wanted to add it, make it a ranked reward. - Radianite as a currency shouldn’t even exist, if you’re spending $70 + on a cosmetic you should be able to use it upgraded with all the colour variants from the get go, if they don’t want to do that, let us use to kingdom credits to upgrade our skins. People needs to wake up and stop spending money on this shitty ass game that brings nothing new to the table, same repetitive comp grind with same terrible rewards, no community servers or actual fun content.
interesting to see the other side of it. yes, the fomo is absolutely crazy in this game and it caters to exploit a lot of people psychologically. but its nice that you can reflect about it. thanks for the insight man!
I want skins, I like skins, I cannot afford them. And the thing is, if a casual player who buys bundle once every year, will have enough radianite to upgrade everything. Even if its 6 bundles, do not buy them. And do not buy any skins, we should boycott so the prices drop down even further. If I was given a option to buy 10 skins(highest tier) for $10 each, and 1 bundle for $80... I would buy the $10 skins cause I can afford small quantity money and I will buy it overtime instead of spending $80 in one go which is hard to keep (no I cannot save $10 each month. That is not how it works
you’re totally correct damn it’s crazy how much they’ve milked players. And it’s sad but true that even if a majority of people see this video and understand your point it’s already too late and Riot has already made so much money. It just doesn’t matter anymore to them
i mean, u r right at this but normal consumer that is playing valorant is not gonna buy a full bundles. Me myself im buying skin when i have spare money and the amout of playtime im playing valorant is enough to get the radionite for free without buying the radionite... but yea you got a good point and im agreeing with you 100%
I remembered that I have a Reaver Vandal in my inventory and I don't understand how people buy such crap as the exo collection, Riot literally shit out this collection, they took a model from BP, added a couple of lights and raised the price like in Kuronami, but there is one thing, Kuronam is imba, and that's kcal
As someone who really only purchases the things in Valorant that they enjoy, a LOT of bundles for me are nothing more than a weekly banner on the shop screen. While the raidenite I have has been collecting dust for ages as I unlock more and more of it, I rarely get skins because the ones they release over time, I generally don't purchase. But if a brand new bundle has a skin I like, I'll just purchase the skin, people already willing to spend like 70+ on a SKIN bundle seem frugal enough to buy anything overly wasteful atp to me, and I think Riot knows that. For me personally, it's not as bad as simply just grabbing a skin every now and then for 20 or so dollars, spending some occasional R on it, and going on.
As someone who loves getting cute skins every now and then, I completely agree with everything you said in the video. The skins quality has dropped significantly. No one wants to pay over 50€ for a shitty bundle
Great video, seeing this Flex I realised that it is particular agent based - Viper, and I think it would have been way better and attracted more players if it wasn't insanely priced at 15$, but rather given Viper players after playing 500 games as that agent or something like that. To all people saying I am broke, therefore I ain't buying it, keep in mind I have few premium skins for every gun fully upgraded ( never bought radianite, just BP) but with this movement I realised, that they are scamming us and it is not worth it anymore...
If you remove Currency System from the Title it’s still accurate
Yeah, that pretty much sums up my thoughts
"valorantS is garbage"
people saying that hes broke have no common sense, why would you spend your money on something that everyone collectively agrees isn't worth its value??
i guess some people just don't agree with the fact that it's not good value xD
but the point is creating skins doesnt block making new content in the game there are different teams this just doesnt make sense
everyone knows there are two different teams. its resource management. If the skin dev team is making them enough money, they will not ask the game dev team to innovate and wont hire new staff. they are probably made to idle around and give us the same updates every few months. so it does actually make a lot of sense
@@Mister_Arkham how do u know they making enough money? Theres something that shows the money they are doing?
@@jimincos RIOT is owned by Tencent, rich Chinese company. They are 100% doing well. Additionally the skin prices, if they aren't doing well with that its cooked. Skins don't have to be that expensive, and if they want to keep the price high then atleast introduce new content or bring new stuff. not just copy paste skins.
If you don't agree you're either too young to understand or just simply not smart.
some people also really just don't care about their spendings xD
Yeah, there are people that usually reply "Just stfu if u don't have money to spend", "We buy it because we can", etc. in the other video that has similar topic.
Hmmm…
Nah i agree. I just dont care. I can afford it, i like it, im buying it.
@@idclol2883 Okay but you see where bro is coming from. That’s all that matters he shouldn’t be getting all this hate for pointing out that riot’s quality is going down while prices are going up.
@@AngryPanda65 yeah i dont get the hate. Everything mentioned was valid
As a person in a poorer country the prices burn deep💀
xD trust me, its better this way.
I feel u brother. i bought an valo account for 23 doller for the prime vandal(all skins completely upgraded), prime phantom and a ghost skin(cant remember the name). It was probably the only time i will buy skin in this game. It's not worth spending 90 doller on something that makes u spend more money.
Fr USD cuts deep in the caribbean.
@@xeruen Same in my country brother
in Egypt
like 300 dollar is like 300 3 months salary for average
so you supposed to eat and drink and pay rent and live and get family and after all of this buy some skins
bullshit
You are completely right!
Reasons why Riot Games makes weapon skins more expensive in Valorant (in my opinion)
- There are no character skins or character accessories (cloaks, gloves, backpacks, etc.) in the game. Their only source of income is the battle pass and the night market.
- Valorant is losing players. That's why they sell lower quality but more expensive weapon skins to the remaining players.
- Valorant gives free VP and RP to e-sports players and streamers so that "they can advertise the skins". These advertisements worked for regular players (us) to some extent. But now, don't work anymore.
Thanks to everyone who read this far. Please correct me if I'm missing/wrong 😊.
great points man! the accessory ideas would actually be great to have in this game, although i doubt they will implement anything really new anymore :/
one more, Counter Strike exist, and the skins there can be several time more expensive (because it has real value)
so unsuspecting people will thought that spending money on val is better than cs because they didn't know that cs's skin is basically an NFT that holds its own value
@@warth45Yeah, and also there’s a ton of cheap skins you can get, the expensive ones are the minority
Not just the currency is a scam, but the match making itself IS a scam. Rigged matches (comebacks, clutches, desync, RNG etc.) just to keep all players in both teams engagement high so that all of them will get addicted to the game, and in return hopefully they will buy skins. How pro players dont address this? well they have signed a contract prohibiting them from saying this, otherwise they will be threatened with lawsuits from riot games
Yes but that’s why skins are so expensive they have no other way of making money the only money they get is from skins and the battle pass which is a reason for I high price now 95 dollars for exo is a scam entirely but if we had character skins then skin prices would most likely go down (if you disagree with my opinion then come have a civil conversation with me in the comments however I won’t respond to adults or little children with smooth brains who just call me a idiot and type in all caps thank you 😊)
I don’t get how people can defend this, especially the radianite system. Been saying that this is a scam
100%
scam
[skam]
noun
a dishonest scheme to gain money or possessions from someone fraudulently, especially a complex or prolonged one:
Not just the currency is a scam, but the match making itself IS a scam. Rigged matches (comebacks, clutches, desync, RNG etc.) just to keep all players in both teams engagement high so that all of them will get addicted to the game, and in return hopefully they will buy skins. How pro players dont address this? well they have signed a contract prohibiting them from saying this, otherwise they will be threatened with lawsuits from riot games
@@aMnezia This game overall is complete and utter garbage. Anyone fanboying and defending this crap deserves to get scammed by riot.
@@aMnezia You know that or assume that?
My friend, tho understanding the problems with the monetization of the game, still hasn't quit, i sent him one of your videos and he really liked it and we were able to talk more about this subject, and i think he's starting to understand that riot is NOT the little angel everyone thinks they are, so, thanks, really for making these videos lad !
no problem! and thanks for the comment! thats all my videos are about. i dont need to convert people to my opinion, just wanna open up discussions to the topic :)
You can play the game without giving riot money I've been playing valorant for 2 years and have never bought a skin
@@DrizzleGT Probably the worst argument ever, you can, yes not buy skins, but the problem is still here, riot is still horribily greedy and wants to siphon your wallet, but you can have your opinion...
@CroqueMonsieur67 I'm saying it's weird to try and talk your friend out of playing a game they enjoy Soley because of Your opinion on the micro transactions in it, if they like Valorant and aren't Paying for skins and are playing the game because they enjoy it then the prices of skins shouldn't ever be a problem or a thing that even bothers you your allowing Riot to take your money lol, you can literally just not give your money to them
@CroqueMonsieur67 I'm not saying Riot isn't Greedy because yes they are, but that means Literally nothing to somebody who isn't paying for skins or battlepasses anyway, it's literally water under a bridge to me if your paying for 95$ bundles then complaining you spent 90$ that's 100% your decision to pay for that
You’re the reason I quit valorant, one of the best decisions of my life
good for the mental health lol
sameeeee. i never felt the refresh since i quit this game. scam is getting out of control T_T
Same, quitting the game makes my mental so much better now
100%
@@Mister_Arkhamwhy tf everyone talks about mental health😂 if u are a chill guy playing with good aim and mute team if toxic bro this game is fun af😂. U ppl who talk about mental health should growup😂
Bro yes they are scamming all players but the players are to blind 😢
fr. but thats what these videos are for. so people dont lose more money than they want
Not just the currency is a scam, but the match making itself IS a scam. Rigged matches (comebacks, clutches, desync, RNG etc.) just to keep all players in both teams engagement high so that all of them will get addicted to the game, and in return hopefully they will buy skins. Thats the main reasons behind those score patterns and the rise of egirls gamers. Player base was significantly increased, a success from riot. How pro players dont address this? well they have signed a contract prohibiting them from saying this, otherwise they will be threatened with lawsuits from riot games
@@aMnezia bro what the yap. The gameplay (clutches, combacks etc) Are a part of the game they are in all games? How is it rigged if the players are controlling the game stupid
Not even kidding this is the reason I stopped playing. They be making anything but good updates for the game
fr
Same man. I hated playing rank because of hoe toxic the playerbase is. You always have a troll, a smurf or someone that throws the game. But the only other option they have is quick match and escalation. These modes are not nearly fun enough to motivate me into keeping playing. Eventually, the only thing inwas looking forward too was the nightmarket. But wven that hype fell off real soon. Stopped playing for over a year now. I am glad that people are finally talking about this. Maybe riot will finally try fixing their game before it’s too late
@@t_raywen8750 what rank were you? As a high silver almost low gold, in my last like 10 games I haven't noticed a smurf, and no one has trolled/threw the game for a long time
Apart from premium skins, I don't understand people's obsession with riot gun buddy. It feels like people have been conditioned to obsess over anything basic as long as it is rare to get.
yeah, the mentality of fans at this point is mostly: "be happy with what we have", so people gotta make themselves believe that these buddies are good xD. i mean i wouldnt mind them but the problem is the price and the fact that they're still one of the biggest cosmetics after 4 years
Thats why i jisy bought only limited items than rare since i limit this time i bought the skins since now they're scamming is out of hand
When I started playing I saw “2-3k for a single skin” and I was like “oh that makes sense that’s probably like 4-5 bucks and their currency is just really inflated”. Little did I know
xDD yeahh. me too in the beginning
Im a cs player guilty of buying a knife, but having to pay extra for weapon animations is criminal. Riot should also at least let people trade these skins if they insist on making them so expensive for no reason.
yeah and they keep comparing val prices with cs prices like " but i dont have to spend 1000$ just for 1 knife".Idk why they don't compare it with anything have similar store system like Fornite for example .Cs prices is high for a reason , there is no reason for Val skins to be this high
At least on CS you can sell skins and make some of your money back
In cs you can sell the skin back too, I even made over $500 just trading them for real money
Fun fact is, Valorant was called out back in 2020 for selling overpriced skins but ever since then, fans and journos stopped talking about it and pretended as if it wasn't an issue in the first place
and ngl tho, i played valorant for 4 yrs and its been a hell of a fun game..but the fact that Riot sells skins without even allowing free-to-play users to earn the skin with grind is insane..same for them being overpriced asf..
Ever since they added clove, i completly stopped playing it cuz these devs(and fans too) can't take a single criticism and silence ya for saying stuff like these..
I spent around 250+ $ in this game and i still stopped playing it because the game is just so toxic and full of smurfs also fking overpriced skins are annoying i will say it was my best decision to never play it again. Good for you if you will never play this game again congratulations on getting a life 🎉
I'm really sure it's not the devs, but the execs or the uppers.
Still, quitting the game is the best decision that I ever made in this game.
Not just the currency is a scam, but the match making itself IS a scam. Rigged matches (comebacks, clutches, desync, RNG etc.) just to keep all players in both teams engagement high so that all of them will get addicted to the game, and in return hopefully they will buy skins. How pro players dont address this? well they have signed a contract prohibiting them from saying this, otherwise they will be threatened with lawsuits from riot games
1:10 Adjusted for inflation, $71 in 2020 is equal to $87 in 2025. So for a baseline bundle you’re only paying $8 more, but it’s still ridiculous to increase the price of something worth $87 to $95.
$90 would be a tolerable price, but $95 is really pushing it.
Agree I didn’t want to do the math but the prices for groceries have went up so much in America that companys have to start asking for more money the reason why the skins are so expensive is because that’s riots main and only source of revenue from valorant
Fortunately i don’t see much skins of the new bundle in the matches, i guess it is a good sign
its good, yeah, maybe itll change something but i doubt it somehow
i see at least 1 person with exo and another with the helix every single game AT LEAST
@@Entity_x2i dont see much exo but the amount of helix knives I've seen is depressing
The gun skins are quite acceptable because imo the new skins suk ahh and just take any vandal with effects in comparison Prime, reaver, Glitchpop and maybe also Elderflame ( although it's overpriced asf atleast it gives a new weapon design ) all are better than this sht ( Ik I could have taken gaia's vengeance, Kuronami, Araxys but imo they r also 2 expensive for quality )
I think, Whole game is a scam.
No new modes
fu…ing rank system
Succcking aim
2025 year should be the protest year against valorant.
Comp is a scam too. Matchmaking is actually rigged. If you won too many games in a row and are about to rank up, the game will put you against Smurfs or duos/ 3 stacks and give you horrible team mates.
You can actually tell when riot is rigging your game, if the last few games you queued took under 2 mins to put you in a lobby and the next game takes like 5 minutes, that’s riot assembling the worst possible team mates for you. It works like that in league of legends too. Riot doesn’t want you to stop playing.
If you’re in a gold lobby in valorant about to rank up to plat and you lose to a smurfing bronze that drops 40+ kills, you lose 30 rr, Making the last 3 games you won a complete waste of time.
Not just the currency is a scam, but the match making itself IS a scam. Rigged matches (comebacks, clutches, desync, RNG etc.) just to keep all players in both teams engagement high so that all of them will get addicted to the game, and in return hopefully they will buy skins. How pro players dont address this? well they have signed a contract prohibiting them from saying this, otherwise they will be threatened with lawsuits from riot games
@@Waltuh5775biggest cope, just get good. If ur at a 50% win rate then ur at the rank you belong in.
Your aim sucks, they can't fix that, bud. Try console.
I love howMister Arkham's videos is all about valorant scamming us in different way lmao
pretty much xD
its also sad that they use so many shady tactics that you can make multiple videos on 💀💀🤦
fr. at some point i gotta change topics tho xD
@ talk about the nnever coming replay system XD
@@Mister_Arkhamyeah sure, but will you? Wanna see same quality vids aside this topic
It’s like buying a house where they give you access to 1/3 floors and the house itself just pisses you off
At least they haven’t dropped a 'Premium Spike Skin' with a $50 explosion finisher… yet. Give it time, though. 🤡💸
its not about having the money, its about them making u spend so much for so little, its not about being poor or rich, the marketing is the problem
facts
happy a lot of people are talking about this, i don't play valorant enough to care for skins, but as you and others mention, if one big video game (valorant) up their prices, it allows other games/companies to up their prices because now its normalized, and id hate for people to value crappy product with such high costs
Totally agree, these bundle prices are already at a crazy high amount of money. Just for players to have spend even more for upgrades. Its ridiculous. Thanks for opening peoples eyes.
I noticed this from the start. I bought some skins because at that time I didn't mind giving them some money in return for the entertainment I get. Over the 2-3 years I spent around $200 on a few skins and battlepasses. A bit more than I'd like, but I don't regret it. Nowadays I don't see the point of buying more skins. I can surely afford them, but I don't want to encourage this kind of greed and deceit. As long as I have a few friends I can play with in a fun way, I'll keep playing valo. I can trade skins with others during games from time to time and that's enough for me. Hopefully more people will think like that after videos such as yours expose these tactics. I was never bought skins for the purpose of flexing or to have the latest thing, I only bought some skins that I liked because I liked them, and I only got more decent skins for the guns I use most, the least used guns can stay with the battlepass skins.
I feel like a lot of these comments are from ppl who don’t play the game, or not frequently. If it’s a hobby (not that healthy, but oh well), spending $200 is absolutely normal. I prolly spent twice as much, and while it’s also a bit more than I’d like, it’s worth the dopamine I got. Ppl with basic understanding would know it’s a scam the moment they’re faced with the option of buying RP, or just simply continue playing the game or buy BPs. But that moment rarely comes, with the average player not shilling at the newest shiniest skins. I’ll admit skins have gotten much worse, value wise, but just simply don’t buy them if YOU think they aren’t worth it.
damn riot got greedy after they forced vanguard into lol
yupp. always have been greedy though i think
@@Mister_Arkham so my short backstory with riot
i start playing lol back in 2019 or so i stop playing in um 2023 or so when vanguard was forced into lol
lets just say that vanguard was worse then any computer virus .
yes i know that lol did have a greedy system but comparing it to what they push now a.k.a remove the loot boxes and blue asset's completely yeah ... i think i will play hero's of the storm at this point.
run Terra also a game from riot Duse sami suffers from the same greed no free skins no free emote not even a free currency where you can buy stuff over time.
ALSO THEY TURN MY BOY VIKTOR INTO A GAY ALIEN 👾..
i only play rune terra at best ugh...
yeah, playing a different game is probably for the best imo. rivals looking pretty good too, incase you havent tried it yet
@@Mister_Arkham i just started playing rivals a few days ago with my D3 friend we're both pretty good at it, but one major problem with the game is controller and mobile players, the aim assist is literally a combination of aibot and triggerbot all in one. you could prolly connect a keyboard and mouse to it and cheat the system. We were grinding WS on alts but an aim assist mob duo barely took it.
That's why I stopped buying skins after 2.0s. I almost got into the rabbit hole and I saw it from far away that this game company is making me mad overtime
I feel like the radianite argument is a bit nuanced. That being said it is actually insane FOMO that nobody seems to see. By playing the game you get radianite, by having radianite youll ask what you can do with it, after asking that youll find out its used to upgrade skins and it costs money. That makes you think you should buy a skin because you are getting a discount in your eyes which is not true at all. Sorry for bad english i need to go sleep
no problem xD but yeah you're right, it plays in well with the FOMO part of this game, which is pretty big
While I get your frustrations, and agree that the skins are overpriced, they aren't a 'scam'. You pay an amount, and you get the skin you paid for. If someone struggles to see the radianite system--which I also think is ridiculous system, mind you--when it's pretty obvious on the store screen, that's their own fault for not doing their due diligence when shilling out money for a £20 skin.
Trying to cite a nebulous metric like "quality" is meaningless in this case, because it's pretty much entirely subjective how much you think a skin is worth, which determines whether you buy it in the first place. If you think the Reaver Vandal is worth £15, then you aren't going to buy it, if you think it's worth £30 then you probably will.
The hapless strawmanning and pretentious violin don't make your argument more convincing. You say things like the "gameplay isn't what keeps people interested, the skins are" without citing anything that backs it up.
Perhaps the stupidest point in this whole video, is blaming the consumers for the fact that companies will do anything to increase profit margins. That's what they exist to do, they don't give a shite about your "room to breath" or "access to the game" or "your fun", they exist to line shareholder pockets. This is how monopolies work, and why Riot can increase their prices. Where else will someone go to play a CS-Like Hero Shooter? Nowhere.
And really the final thing, is you do nothing to address an actual point. You don't *have* to buy these skins, and calling the people who make this argument shallow minded is moronic. You act like this is them excusing Riot's shitty practices, but it's just a perfectly valid point. I've got plenty of hours, and never needed to buy a skin.
If there's anything about Riot that should be called out, it's their transparently bad refund policy. *That* is scummy, the rest of it is also scummy, but it's the kind of scum-baggery that all companies take part it. Makes you think, maybe the problem isn't Valorant players or Riot in specific, but that we use an economic system that promotes this kind of exploitative behaviour. I guess it's more fun to miss the forest for the trees tho. 🥴
It’s simple, the parent company Riot doesn’t care about their player base. Even a greedy company like EA is more generous with their monetization and they are known to be one of the greediest companies out there. If you play Apex, you’ll know that they offer ways to earn free skins by playing the game. Are they extremely flashy? No, but they are good looking non-the-less. You can get free Apex drops as well and eventually craft event items for free. When has Riot ever even remotely provided something good to their long lasting players? Never. Not a single thank you. Just a bunch of shitty backgrounds and terrible looking gun charms that nobody wants. Now look at successful long running games like Fortnite. Always developing new game-modes and community events. Providing a sandbox experience where competitive and non-competitive players can thrive. Providing free skins and variants of existing skins to existing players. Constantly looking for new collaborations and opportunities through research and development. This is why games ran by greedy corporate bottomline companies are failing while ones that aren’t afraid to invest in the future are thriving. Now, going into conspiracies, I believe there is a more intricate reason why Riot refuses to release a replay system. Their excuse is that the game “wasn’t built to have one” but that makes zero sense. Black Ops 1 from the CoD franchise had a functional one in 2010. Marvel Rivals made replays a huge ideal even allowing you to directly post your in-game clips to TikTok and other platforms. This will only create more social engagement for the game and drive more people to try it out after seeing it on their feeds. So why hasn’t Riot done this? Simple. Their main selling point/niche is based around Vanguard, their state-of-the-art anti-cheat that supposedly bans most cheaters. However, if you are a long time gamer, you’ll know that it isn’t that easy to stop cheaters especially with external hardware cheats and spoofers. If a functional replay system was active, I believe more people would start to realize that Vanguard is nothing more than a way to brainwash players into believing their favourite game is stopping cheaters when in reality, there are tons of them. Most people believe cheaters are all rage-botters who spin around in circles or only hit headshots when most are smart and only use small cheats to enhance their gameplay. That is why it’s impossible to distinguish between a cheating Immortal who’s really Gold and an actual Immortal. Only with a functioning replay system, would players be able to dissect micro-movements and aim to really see what’s going on like in Counterstrike or any other game. But that would be counterintuitive for Riot. That would make their mighty “Vanguard” look useless, especially since it constantly runs as soon as our computer boots. Most players who play because of integrity and a need for competition will realize there is nothing distinguishing with Vanguard versus Valve and move away to other games.
0:18 Fire transition
As a canadian bundles typically cost between 160-200$ for the base bundle and around 150$ to upgrade them its ridiculous
wtf do they have against canada lmao
@@Mister_Arkham its in caniadan dollars i think
@@Mister_Arkham canadian dollar probably lower value than american
@@Legac706yea canadian dollars have less value, so everything is more expensive over there. But up to 200$ is insane. Never saw something like this before even for Canada
@@t_raywen87501000 vp is literally 36000 here in mongolia
as a person that bought some skins the radianite is a scam
It's not a scam, pay attention to what the hell you're buying, lmao
How many GPU boxes have you accidently purchased from ebay?lol
@ i am happy with my skins but i dont like the radianite system
Here’s my opinion: I’ve been playing CS:GO since the old days, and I had a great time. The only reason I quit was because of cheaters and the complete lack of a real anti-cheat.
Then I switched to Valorant during the beta, and for a while, it felt like the best FPS experience something fresh and exciting. But now? Riot only cares about esports and completely ignores the actual player base. Constant nerfs ruin the game, and it feels like they’re copying Ubisoft’s awful balancing decisions.
Skins are another joke $71 to $95 for cosmetics? That’s straight-up robbery. Most people don’t even buy them because they like them; they just want to flex. I fell for that scam too and regretted it. Riot is heading down the same greedy path as EA.
The game is dry as hell same recycled content, nothing worth grinding for. They refuse to add anything meaningful for veteran players, and at this point, it’s just the same repetitive garbage.
Valorant had potential, but Riot killed it.
Not a bad video, keep doing your thing!
thanks man! and interesting to see your point of it. Definitely agree that this game is dry af. A shame about the potential. it couldve been great
Riot is selling the morals and integrity of the game
Finally not a riot gun buddy simp
Why there is 10k limit on kc when you cant even buy 2 stages at the same time for a character
thats a whole different scam lmao. they wont even let us have too much of the the free currency XD
Whaattt Riot games is scamming its customers????!!! Noo wayyy i REALLY DIDN'T EXPECT THAT
so true about the Flex though. Who is actually going to use that thing mid-game? But now it contributes to a bundle's value even though it's completely useless.... good stuff. I remember thinking Valorant price skins on launch were egregious, especially with radianite. But the addition of useless flex items for pure bloat are just a cherry on top
As a passionate Valorant fan, I really want this video to go viral to save Valorant. I don't want a game with a good story to die just because of the greed of the people who make them. Thank you, I love this video.
In Valorant, if you buy a $90 skin bundle, after 5 years, it's still a $90 skin bundle (aside from maybe a sale). In CS2, if you buy a $200 knife, after 5 years, you can sell that knife and maybe buy a car.
Thank God I only bought a Vandal and a knife skin despite being addicted for 2-3 years. But now that I've stopped playing Valorant, I feel like why did I spend that money on a game I could have used that money in a better way.
in CS2, having even your pistol out movement speed is very similar to knife. No knife skin? get cheap cool pistol skin. never hold knife out. done lmao
Ssg08 has basically the same movement speed as knife
damn that transition at 00:19 is soooo satisfying like what the hell
haha yeah, glad somebody noticed :)
I totally agree with you. Initially when I started to play i didn't want to spend anything. Later on i thought battlepass is ok for me and then now i came to a place where it felt its the only game i play and it's ok to spend. So i got 3 skins now. But as you mentioned Radianite points are scam. Bundle price is ridiculous now. Absolutely trash now. Day by day i see its getting worse. Flex just doesn't make sense at all. I hope they make bundles like reaver and introduce new animation, styles. But exo is absolutely trash for having comet style with no hard work put in to it.
100%.
only buying what you really need is where its at
Who let bro cook... u need to let him cook more often 🔥🗣
xD
just switch over to cs2 from this shitty excuse of a fps game
Nope
@@NoahEditsAnime1 brainded?
@Wisefishfortnite Ah yes says the guy who's name is literally Wisefishfortnite. Which gives me a clear example that you're a kid.
both suck :/
@ can ya all stop argueing and accept the facts
5:38 you started speaking the purest form of facts i've ever saw in my life, I thought it was just about valorant, but then you acknowledge the fact that this was self-inflicted, this greed is the result of being flexible/blindly loyal with now soulless companies (EA, Bethesda, Riot, etc.)
Good vid bro, keep up the good work!
I agree-as someone who buys skins, they upcharged the bundles and made them lower quality. And after all that, people still buy skins. Don't get me wrong, the new Helix bundle looks sick, but why would I spend $70 for Flex? That’s just bad. It doesn’t even have styles.
A buddy that costs around $3-5, a player card that was upcharged, and two skins with one knife-out of those, I’d maybe use the Phantom, but only when I upgrade it. By the time I get around to upgrading it, I’ll have forgotten about the skin. I have the Valiant Hero Vandal in my inventory, and I still haven’t started upgrading it. I bought it when Iso came out, so yeah, I get the scam.
But the people defending Riot are just crazy. “Just grind the BP.” It’s just 130 Radianite! As you said, I would need double that to upgrade the whole bundle. I just don’t get the people defending Riot.
i dont get it either man. and yeah i would have no problem with these things, like you said, if they were just cheaper. but they upsell them like its better than a full AAA game lmao
@Mister_Arkham soo true and eveyone though the flex will be maybe 5-7 dollars max and they are making the main selling point of the bundle that
@ yeah, it was kinda predictable that they wouldnt make it cheap or consumer friendly xD
I'm glad that i uninstall that trash in 1 February
I tried val when it was first launched and yes it was extremely fun, but I gave up after they added the 11th agent because I knew there would be a rotating meta like there is in league of legends. CS2 has been the exact same game for 2 decades now. Its a winning formula. Now im hearing from my mates who quit val are complaining about their favourite agent being out of the meta or some characters being too op etc.
I never spent money in the game and a reason for that is because they tie the skins to your account, you cant trade or sell them. My friends who quit have $500+ lost on a free game whereas in cs2 my inventory has appreciated by $2,000 in just 2 years alone all the while I enjoy them in-game and can sell them for profit to enjoy other hobbies (or invest it) when that time comes
I think valorant is a dead ass game now people just play it because they have bought skins... The maps are boring .. The agents are all fucked up and just fk this game d0g i quit after hitting immo 3 back to cs 2 hahaha
Love to see a video of someone who actually uses his brain and is capable of thinking on his own. Great video and perfectly said, keep up 🤝🏾
appreciated! will keep it up.
broooo I was thinking the same about the flex equip movement speed...I am glad that someone is talking about it!!!!!
finally, some1 who is taking the truth "its too expensive". u earned my respect and a sub. this is the sole reason i nvr buy skin, i just play it like i want to let off my steam.
Valorant mfs be comparing prices to CS but CS items can be sold for real money 😂
Also CS skin prices come from rarity aswell as how many are sold/wanted by players. You can resell skins to get most of the value back aswell. Theres no way to compare those skins. lmao
i have 1000 radianite saved since episode 1 act 3. Anyway you are speaking facts 95 dollars that a triple A game , a full bundle is a gpu i have 2 skins i regret buying em
finnaly somebodyd touching on the courency of this game 🙏
5:45 to be fair games now days cost very little because for example 60 dollar game in 2018 was 76 dollars in todays dollars or in 2016 when 60 dollar games were every single triple A game and when this was new it would be the 80 dollars that it is now for just a few games while most games are only 70 dollars that means 70 dollar games are 10 dollars cheaper than a 60 dollar game bought in 2016
i am not gonna try to defend the absolutely absurd prices val is asking for
he is extactly right in korea server they cant buy radiantie point with money they have events that give out free radianite points. valorant does this because of a law in korea that makes games only have one currency to buy with real money
While I still do play the game, I made the decision to avoid buying any cosmetics because they aren't really worth the money. The recent bundles really solidifed the point.
I'm not going to give Riot Games any money. Not getting the skins I like is going to be a fair trade for that.
totally agreed, when i switched to valorant few months ago, i knew that the prices are extremely high and knew that i would only ever buy 1 vandal skin, 1 phantom and 1 knife, an no more, bought imperium vandal, and blackmarket butterfly (love csgo), just waiting for moment to buy a good phantom skin in shop.
I kept telling my friends they shouldn't buy every bundle and battle pass since I already know how greedy Riot is. Now some of them are complaining about the bundle's cost without knowing it was part of their fault.
Just hear me out my friend and i play valo from time to time
Hes spent money on skins over and over again and is using his rx 580 with a ryzen 5 1600 while ive saved up enough for a 7600x/9070xt(waiting for announcement)or 7900xt
The thing i realised about the radianite is that its to capitalise on big spenders, so called "big whales" in sales distribution. Radianite is only needed for people who regularly buy skin bundles. If you Bought a skin bundle once you propably had some Radianite even from free side of pass. But people who spend like 120$ a Month on skins have to pay even more for riot to upgrade its bundles. So yeah its maximasing profits to the extreme and I still can't understand how these bundles even sell. It even come to the point that all they do is balance the game once in a while and throw random bundles for 100 dollars every two weeks. Insane that this game is still relevant and making profit
Extremely well edited and made video. Big respect bro!
hes underrated fr
the 2000 credits bundle (which is the one that is the minimum bundle that can get you by on skins) costs 4 to 10 weeks worth of allowance here in my country.
Valorant's pricing model is honestly absurd, and more people should talk about it. If we compare it to AAA games, where a full game costs around $60-$80, Valorant bundles often go for $90-$100. That’s insane for just cosmetics in a free-to-play game.What’s worse is the decline in quality. Older 1775 VP skins used to look clean and well-designed, but now, the same price range feels underwhelming. If you want a decent-looking skin, you're forced to pay 2175 VP or more. The overall quality of bundles has dropped significantly, yet the prices remain high.Despite this, many people blindly defend Riot’s pricing model. The lack of criticism allows them to keep pushing overpriced, low-effort skins. This isn’t just expensive-it’s a scam, and the community should be talking about it more.
Riot made Valorant skins are expensive because CS skins are usually more expensive, but the thing is CS skins can be traded and bought while valorant skins can't
100%
as someone who plays a lot of cs, it's funny for me to see how the valorant skin situation had evolved. When the game released and I criticised the skin system, people kept defending it by saying it's more affordable and better value. Now I see friends of mine spend upwards of 300$ and 40$+ per skin on the game, while I've been swapping between almost all the skins I loved in csgo with 100$, which has now gone up to 140$ in value without me having to do anything. Hell, I could afford around 190$ of skins with just cases I earnt for free alone if I didn't want to pay anything. All in all I just think it's funny that this system was hailed to be so much more affordable than csgo while ending up like this
I still have people ask me, hey want to by a cs go knife? Nope. Live with your mistake.
1:40 who even do that? I never heard anyone defending the price tho
finally someone is talking about this also the new skins are actually trash or overpriced nothing seems fair. keep it up man
thanks man!
I lost my faith in humanity when I found out that people are willing to pay £70 to an electrician to change a light bulb in the house. Just no sense in value of the money 🤦♂️
Good editing very underrated
thanks man, really appreciate it!
what's funnily ironic is that most players ignore the skin from the bundle and only there for the radianite points, as if riot predicted it and make really bad skins for the bundle.
yup. no effort, cause people buy it anyway
first thing i realized with val and ive only played for like two months on and off with my friends. i havent bought a single skins, and i think its stupid, and would be stupid to buy one. havent even gotten battlepass, it feels completely irrelevant. ive spent thousands of dollars on skins on csgo and my friends still trade, but i dont play the game anymore so i dont see a reason to. i was a shit player and csgo too many cheaters, but val is cool, not that good either but im learning. ill stick to picking up skins for now.
Instead of bombarding riot about the replay system in their comments, we should start with their ridiculous prices. Which of course includes not buying the skins anymore…like really
When i saw kingdom credits being added, i knew it was a terrible decision. When i saw that it had a limit of 10k, i knew it was over. Grinding xp for agent rewards was fun. Not being able to stock pile a bunch of credits to unlock the later rewards in one go sucks and is one (of many) reasons why i dont play anymore.
Hey! I am a counter strike player and only played valorant for about 200h and quit it over a year ago but i have really been enjoying your videos about valorant. many of the reasons i stayed true to CS are in these videos. i would rather spend my money in a game where good skins cost hundreds, rather than incrementally spending hundreds in valorant that i cant sell. Great video, i hope the valorant community can pressure the devs to not see their playerbase as just wallets waiting to be emptied
Wait until they decide to implement the usage of radianite into flexes 💀💀
I was playing Valorant in 2021-2023. It was new and refreshing from games like CS:GO. 4 years later, its still the same game but with more money to spend on useless stuff. Nothing new besides maps no one likes and unbalanced, uncreative agents. Literally no reason to play this game besides being a content creator or esport athlete.
that last part is especially true. its like they only care about their esports secene and making money. of course its important but cmon man, at least give your players something
I absolutely agree. What I think is interesting that we all talk about “value”. Don’t think there is. I also like beautiful things and art but it is hard for me to project a concept of “value” on to something such commercially exploited
I only buy the "Champion" Bundles, no point wasting money on other bundles due to stupid prices, I rather waste it on a single bundle a year which is Champion and Team capsule. That's the only money I spent on Valorant. At the end of the day, Skins are just cosmetic, nice to have but not necessary.
The more i see these videos the more it opens my eyes honestly. Helps me to stop myself from buying bs skins in a game which will be stuck in the game forever. Not like there is not much to buy with the degrading quality of skins. Copy pasted bs.
Good video i defiantly agree with you on some of the topics you have spoken about.
1. Are velorant skins overpriced?
In my opinion most of the new skins should be priced around the 1750 vp range that some bundles used to be
also as a player it was very obvious with some bundles they released like the VCT//LOCK IN one or the new year bundle last year (xerofang) or the one you showed in your video that they keep on increasing the prices and try to figure out what people are willing to spend
2. the Radianite price
Is that stuff stupid expensive if you buy it? YES DONT!!!
I have spend about 400-500€ on skins in that game and never bought any outside of the battlepass the way i always saw it was they want you to buy the battlepass when you see the price on Radianite. that would make you play more what might end in you buying even more skins and for the people that buy so many skins that the pints they get from playing arent enough its likely that they will pay the high price as well
3. FOMO
you didn't mention it in your video but its another predatory business move that they use
every item you can buy in a store in valorant has a timer that starts with the shop reset every day and even the "free" assessor store resets
pluss you get the items like the vct skins or the arcane stuff that is only available for a short amount of time and is never available again
think that is all i had in the end i still play the game and still pay for skins I do think you oversimplified some of the things and maybe if you make another video like this try to go more into detail and try to explain it more cos this just felt like a rant and not a video that tries to explain a very real and important situation the game is in
i got a free accout from my friend with some skins like 3 or sum and i spent more money buying other skins just them to delete it so i gave them free money and they took my account its actually a scam
Every game not having a tradesystem should take their fingers and fill every hole.
I agree with this, even as a Valorantpalyer who bought skins for around 150-200$. It is an obvies scam with the flex and the bundels. And i still think that some skins are god but not worth there money. I think the best way to deal with that is to buy skins u want but not in a way were u have like 10 skins for some guns. For the point with the upgrade system, just dont buy these and wait until u get them free to play.
im ngl i was deep into buying skins to the point where id always buy any bundle that comes out even though it was mid, the fomo in this game is crazy, i agree to you 100% and everything you said.
- no one asked for flex, and even if they wanted to add it, make it a ranked reward.
- Radianite as a currency shouldn’t even exist, if you’re spending $70 + on a cosmetic you should be able to use it upgraded with all the colour variants from the get go, if they don’t want to do that, let us use to kingdom credits to upgrade our skins.
People needs to wake up and stop spending money on this shitty ass game that brings nothing new to the table, same repetitive comp grind with same terrible rewards, no community servers or actual fun content.
Flex as a ranked reward would actually be a great idea.
interesting to see the other side of it. yes, the fomo is absolutely crazy in this game and it caters to exploit a lot of people psychologically.
but its nice that you can reflect about it. thanks for the insight man!
I want skins, I like skins, I cannot afford them. And the thing is, if a casual player who buys bundle once every year, will have enough radianite to upgrade everything. Even if its 6 bundles, do not buy them. And do not buy any skins, we should boycott so the prices drop down even further. If I was given a option to buy 10 skins(highest tier) for $10 each, and 1 bundle for $80... I would buy the $10 skins cause I can afford small quantity money and I will buy it overtime instead of spending $80 in one go which is hard to keep (no I cannot save $10 each month. That is not how it works
i stopped playing this game in august 2023, its sad to see they didnt improve with anything since then. im glad i dropped this inferior fps game
you’re totally correct damn it’s crazy how much they’ve milked players. And it’s sad but true that even if a majority of people see this video and understand your point it’s already too late and Riot has already made so much money. It just doesn’t matter anymore to them
i mean, u r right at this but normal consumer that is playing valorant is not gonna buy a full bundles. Me myself im buying skin when i have spare money and the amout of playtime im playing valorant is enough to get the radionite for free without buying the radionite... but yea you got a good point and im agreeing with you 100%
This game is also playing with ur psychology too
definitely
I remembered that I have a Reaver Vandal in my inventory and I don't understand how people buy such crap as the exo collection, Riot literally shit out this collection, they took a model from BP, added a couple of lights and raised the price like in Kuronami, but there is one thing, Kuronam is imba, and that's kcal
"iT's a fReE tO pLaY gAmE bRuH, hOw eLsE aRe tHeY gOnNa mAkE mOnEy & aNsWeR tO iNvEsToRs?"
As someone who really only purchases the things in Valorant that they enjoy, a LOT of bundles for me are nothing more than a weekly banner on the shop screen. While the raidenite I have has been collecting dust for ages as I unlock more and more of it, I rarely get skins because the ones they release over time, I generally don't purchase. But if a brand new bundle has a skin I like, I'll just purchase the skin, people already willing to spend like 70+ on a SKIN bundle seem frugal enough to buy anything overly wasteful atp to me, and I think Riot knows that. For me personally, it's not as bad as simply just grabbing a skin every now and then for 20 or so dollars, spending some occasional R on it, and going on.
As someone who loves getting cute skins every now and then, I completely agree with everything you said in the video. The skins quality has dropped significantly. No one wants to pay over 50€ for a shitty bundle
Great video, seeing this Flex I realised that it is particular agent based - Viper, and I think it would have been way better and attracted more players if it wasn't insanely priced at 15$, but rather given Viper players after playing 500 games as that agent or something like that. To all people saying I am broke, therefore I ain't buying it, keep in mind I have few premium skins for every gun fully upgraded ( never bought radianite, just BP) but with this movement I realised, that they are scamming us and it is not worth it anymore...
been playing since release but never bought a skin. I did spend money on different games but not valorant i was never satisfied with the pricing