VALORANT Introduces Voice Chat for Russian Players
Russian players of VALORANT will now have the ability to use voice chat during their competitive matches, according to a recent announcement by game producer Sara Dadafshar on social media.
Previously, Russian players were unable to communicate in-game due to a law that restricted the use of voice chat in the country. Riot, the developer of VALORANT, acknowledged this issue in a statement on March 27, 2020, citing the regulatory environment as the reason for not being able to provide voice chat functionality in the game within the territory of the Russian Federation.
The restriction stemmed from a federal law known as “Yarovaya’s package,” implemented in July 2018, which required companies to store calls, messages, files, and conversations of customers for a period of six months in order to combat terrorism. As a result, voice chat in popular games like VALORANT, League of Legends, and Counter-Strike was negatively impacted.
In 2018, Riot Russia addressed this issue in a blog post, explaining that they were unable to store audio records for such a long period due to infrastructure limitations. Despite their efforts, they were unable to find a solution at that time.
However, Riot has now managed to overcome this hurdle and enable voice chat in VALORANT for Russian players. Dadafshar acknowledged the delay in implementing this feature, stating that it took some time to work around the existing laws.
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