Middle East servers and Arabic localization are coming to VALORANT this week

Riot Games promised since the beginning of VALORANT’s journey to provide support to as many regions as they can, and reassured Indian and Middle Eastern players that servers for both regions will go live before the end of the year. Well, the latter region is getting it on October 14th, 2020, alongside dedicated Arabic language localization.

Riot Games already has a MENA office based in Dubai, emphasizing the studio’s recognition of the potential market present in the region. The Middle Eastern servers, located in Bahrain, will give players a much lower ping than the usual 120-150 they currently have and a much needed smoother in-game experience. Not only that, menus have all been localized, and we have seen the VALORANT Arabian Twitter account tease players over the past period with localized voice clips of multiple agents.

Riot Games will be giving all players around the world a special in-game item to commemorate this milestone as well. The Middle East region was included in the studio’s First Strike tournament roadmap. As per the press release, the first official regional esports tournament will be announced later this month, with its events taking place in November.

The studio has bigger plans from this point onwards dedicated to the region, which includes an episodic series of content that will offer useful tutorials and localised efforts, a music video featuring leading Arabic artists and humorous and insightful mini-series’ that tell the story of Arabic VALORANT gamers playing on the new Middle East servers. We have seen similar regional Riot Games offices promote the game using popular artists, namely Korea with their Operator music video.

“We know there’s a strong appetite for gaming in the region and with VALORANT being an exciting FPS game that has got people talking and playing, we are determined to take the gameplay experience to the next level. Rolling out new and innovative content and features for the gamers will help establish VALORANT as the leading game in the FPS genre which is growing rapidly across the region.”

“With the dedicated localised Middle East servers in Bahrain and Arabic language support for MENA gamers representing an important milestone for Riot Games, this will help attract more gamers and allow them to play the game they love in a language they understand,” said Ali Muslumanoglu, General Manager of Riot Games MENA.

Riot Games promises to continue to look into ways of enhancing the North Africa and Levant markets as well to make sure to grow VALORANT’s global community, and including these regions in the upcoming First Strike tournaments and providing them with dedicated servers are definitely steps in the right direction. What other regions do you want to see receive a similar treatment? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!