With an official release date for Riot Games’ VALORANT Mobile still awaited, fans have been treating themselves to a different version of the game, Hyper Front. The blatant rip-off of the tactical shooter, developed by China’s NetEase Games, was announced back in January 2022, but over a year later it is shutting down.
The VALORANT clone for mobile has had a difficult year
Even a quick look at Hyper Front shows how similar the game is to VALORANT. From the maps, characters, and playstyle, it is a very obvious rip-off.
The game was released in July 2022 but hasn’t been able to become very successful. NetEase didn’t release many content updates for it and it even got removed from the Apple App Store for undisclosed reasons. Currently, it has over 100,000 downloads on the Google Play Store.
NetEase even tried to promote the game through esports. Back in July 2022, it announced a $100,000 tournament for Southeast Asia and the Americas. Furthermore, Riot Games sued the title across multiple courts worldwide in December 2022 for obvious reasons, according to a report by Polygon. Riot Games’ lawyer, Dan Nabel, even spoke to Polygon on how he felt about the game.
“All of our creative choices are mirrored in NetEase’s game. We don’t think that changing the color of a character’s ability or slightly modifying the visual appearance changes the fact that it’s copyright infringement. It’s like that old saying, ‘You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.’”
Unsurprisingly, NetEase has now announced that the game is being shut down.
Hyper Front to shut down in a week with no refunds for players
Source: Twitter | HyperFront
The official Twitter account for the game announced today that they will be “sunsetting” the game on April 10 at 8 AM UTC. Until then, players can continue to enjoy Hyper Front. It’s unclear if this is a direct effect of Riot Games’ lawsuit or a personal decision by NetEase.
With no word about refunds in the statement, if you are a fan who spent money on the title, you will likely not be getting it back. NetEase has promised to delete all player data, though, after the servers are taken down next week.
“We are proud of the community formed around Hyper Front. Thank you all for your support and love during this time and we apologize for the disappointment that this announcement might cause.”
Fans of the game can wait around for VALORANT Mobile to launch, though.
When will VALORANT Mobile release?
If you are a Hyper Front player, you will also love VALORANT Mobile. That is when it finally releases. While the game was announced back in 2021, it still hasn’t entered even a beta stage.
Tencent is working with Riot on development, and fans are hoping to see a beta version this year. There have been some leaks of the game from closed tests which have further intensified the hype around the title. It doesn’t look a global release will be happening anytime soon.