Red Dead Redemption is a brand that brought Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive more than three billion dollars. As of September 2021, the first and second installments have sold a total of 62 million copies. This allowed both games to enter the list of the “50 Best-Selling Video Games in History”.
Yet in early July, the brand sank into oblivion. It all started with the online mode for Red Dead Redemption 2.
How Red Dead Online died
Before the launch of the successful Western’s sequel, Strauss Zelnick said in an interview with Game Informer: “We don’t have an expectation that everything has to match up to something else that was extraordinarily successful”. Remember this statement.
Senior Producer Josh Needleman talked about support “like GTA Online” in an interview with IGN: “We think Red Dead Online will create its own audience ready for something completely new. What form that takes as it finds its feet, we’re not sure. […] And we’ll be working with our incredible community to shape it into something amazing”.
Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online were supported with updates. But on July 14, 2020, the first flagrant incident occurred. Red Dead Online players dressed their characters as clowns and staged a march. The demonstration was timed to the fact that Rockstar had not released any updates for seven months. “Since we’re clowns who believe in upcoming updates, we should look like clowns”, one player stated.
After that, of course, the company took action. Rockstar rolled out an update that was completely unprepared for release, filled with numerous bugs — NPCs and animals began disappearing from multiplayer, and weapons stopped firing. The patch was hastily rolled back, but the community was given a clear sign of the studio’s attitude toward Red Dead Online.
In an attempt to make the multiplayer mode of Red Dead Redemption 2 more successful, it was even separated from the single-player campaign — to sell it for $20 and build up the player base this way. Alas, Rockstar’s plan did not work. The Red Dead Online servers were never empty, the game had a solid community, but for the Take-Two Interactive conglomerate, this was not enough — the returns were not right.
In February 2021, SuperData published sales statistics for December 2020 and January 2021. According to the numbers in the report, the influx of new players in Red Dead Redemption 2 during the winter holidays amounted to 1.8 million people on personal computers alone! On consoles, the figure was more modest — 611,000 new players. These are incredible numbers for a game that first debuted in 2018.
After another add-on for Red Dead Online was released in the summer of 2021, the last event in the game world was the Christmas celebration. After that, communication with players from Rockstar ceased until the summer of 2022.
In July of this year, players gathered to bury the online mode of their beloved Western. This was announced on July 5 in the RedDeadRDC community, inviting everyone to the ceremony. And Rockstar reacted once more, but not in the way players had hoped.
On July 7, the developers released a statement — support for Red Dead Online was being discontinued. No content updates were planned. All because the company needed more people to develop Grand Theft Auto 6. In the same statement, the developers detailed an upcoming major expansion for GTA Online.
Following Rockstar’s statement, a funeral procession for Red Dead Online took place on the game servers on July 13. Players dressed in black, took photos in cemeteries, and the headstones read “R.I.P. Red Dead Online 2018-2022”. Even I visited the game that day, spending a few wonderful hours there with friends. And by August 1, the game world was deserted — all NPCs and animals had disappeared, as if marking the death of the project. That was precisely how the online mode of the original Red Dead Redemption died, since no one bothered to fix the antics of hackers in the old game.
What is happening at Rockstar
Yet Red Dead Online was only the first precedent. Immediately following the July 7 announcement, insiders began revealing more information.
On July 7, a user going by the handle TezFunz2 reported the following: “Per a reliable source with clear accuracy on Rockstar plans, remasters of GTA IV & RDR1 were on the table a few years ago, but Rockstar chose not to proceed with the projects in mind. The poor reception of the Trilogy [Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition] might be a reason behind the decision”.
In a subsequent message, the insider also sealed the fate of the next-gen versions of Red Dead Redemption 2, answering another user’s question:
“— Is it safe to say we aren’t getting an RDR2 PS5/Xbox Series upgrade ever?
— Yes. I’ve heard about it a long time ago, along with plans for an enhanced Rockstar Editor. All cancelled/halted”.
Creating a remaster of abysmal quality with the help of an outsourced studio and neural networks is an awful idea. Yet Take-Two and Rockstar pushed such a project out, charged money for it, and placed high hopes on it while being fully aware of the product’s quality. Moreover, they judge the players’ desire for a Red Dead Redemption remaster based on the “success” of the botched Grand Theft Auto Trilogy. The executive leadership of both companies making such calls has clearly lost its mind.
No one in the company refuted the insiders’ statements, meaning one inescapable conclusion presents itself — Rockstar strangled the Red Dead Redemption franchise with its own hands. The studio no longer wants to be the “rock star” the industry once knew.
On July 27, 2022, well-known journalist Jason Schreier confirmed this by publishing a new investigation. It concerned the development of Grand Theft Auto 6, yet this information sheds light on what happened to the Red Dead Redemption franchise.
Initially, the studio’s plan was to create the most massive game in the series, spanning both North and South America. Later, the territory was scaled back to the vicinity of Vice City, though the developers plan to expand the game post-launch. The decision was made by Rockstar’s leadership to prevent studio employees from overworking.
If nobody wants to crunch on Grand Theft Auto 6, cutting massive chunks of content from the game, what dedication to the “unprofitable” Red Dead Redemption series can the community expect from the studio? Progressive developers are not interested in results — they want more rest and leisure rather than crafting masterpieces like in days gone by.
Why Red Dead Redemption needs a remake (or at least a remaster)
In the era of remasters and remakes, Rockstar has already disgraced itself with Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition. But failing to release a re-edition of one of the most successful games in the industry (ranked 44th on the list of “Best-Selling Video Games”) is utter nonsense. Rumors once swirled that the project’s source code was lost, yet Rockstar, with all its resources, could easily rebuild Red Dead Redemption on the engine of the second installment.
I have compiled five reasons why the original game should not merely be ported to current consoles, but completely remade on the sequel’s engine.
- It is the continuation of Red Dead Redemption 2. Paradoxically, the first installment in the series is the continuation of the prequel sequel. Modern players likely do not realize that after the ending of the second game, there was a full-fledged continuation. And the fact that today’s audience is missing out on it is unacceptable. The story of John Marston hunting down former comrades from a dangerous line of work still strikes a deep emotional chord today.
- There are no Western games on this scale. Even Hideo Kojima praised Rockstar for popularizing the Western genre in the gaming industry. Without modern technology, such games were impossible, yet the detailed open world of the original Red Dead Redemption still amazes.
- A powerful story. Distinctive characters and dialogue immerse players deep into the atmosphere of the Wild West. John Marston’s motivation is clear to anyone, which is why one can empathize with such a vile killer and thief. In the end, tears roll down your cheeks to the song “Deadman’s Gun” performed by Ashtar Command — you get just as attached to the protagonist as you do to Arthur Morgan in the prequel sequel.
- The project is nearly ready — thanks to Red Dead Redemption 2. Rockstar recreated the world of the original game as a side state for a couple of missions and exploration in Red Dead Online. True, some areas in the second game differ from the original. But restoring them to their former glory, with the company’s resources and near-complete locations on a modern engine — there was a time when this would have been child’s play for Rockstar.
- The game never shipped beyond the Xbox 360 and PS3 — that is Red Dead Redemption’s main issue. This magnificent project is only accessible to modern gamers on Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles, where Microsoft boosted the resolution to 4K on their own. Playing Red Dead Redemption today on a PlayStation 3 or through an emulator on PC is a surefire way to spoil your impression of the game.
Analysis
The Red Dead Redemption brand is officially dead — sentenced by Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive. The success of GTA Online blinded the studios and pushed their appetite to unimaginable heights. Contrary to their assertions, the companies started measuring every product against their cash cow. The unwillingness to work and expand the series sealed the franchise’s fate. The death of Red Dead Online, the cancellation of next-gen versions of Red Dead Redemption 2, the cancellation of the Red Dead Redemption remaster — Take-Two and Rockstar lined the brand up against the wall and cold-bloodedly pulled the trigger.