Rockstar Games heads west again: 'Red Dead Redemption 2' announced for 2017

By Gabe Gurwin Published October 18, 2016

gta red dead redemption reddeadmarston — Image used with permission by copyright holder

No longer will fans have to speculate, plead, or pray to a picture of the Houser brothers: Red Dead Redemption 2 is indeed real, and it’s arriving next year.

Developer Rockstar Games made the announcement official on its website this morning, dating the game for a fall 2017 release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

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“Developed by the creators of Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption, Red Dead Redemption 2 is an epic tale of life in America’s unforgiving heartland. The game’s vast and atmospheric world will also provide the foundation for a brand new online multiplayer experience,” reads the official announcement.

A third image, following the two we’ve seen in the last two days, was also released alongside the news, showing seven outlaws, each holding weapons that appear to line up with the equipment we’ve seen in previous games — this won’t be a “modern” Western like Call of Juarez: The Cartel attempted in 2011.

Just a few hours before the announcement, fans became aware that Rockstar parent company Take-Two had registered “RedDeadOnline.com,” which is likely what the “brand new online multiplayer experience” mentioned in the announcement is referring to.

This branding would also line up nicely with the company’s other major property, Grand Theft Auto, which bundled the multiplayer components of Grand Theft Auto V into Grand Theft Auto Online shortly after the game released in 2013.

The multiplayer component of the original Red Dead Redemption — itself a successor to the earlier Red Dead Revolver — was praised in its own right, with Vice’s Jake Tucker calling it “the best part of the game” and “the best emergent mode that Rockstar has ever realized.”

As the announcement does not make mention of a PC version of the game, it’s unclear if Red Dead Redemption will be coming to the platform at all. The game’s first trailer will release on Thursday, October 20, at 11 a.m. ET.

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Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

Red Dead Redemption on Switch is already discounted in holiday sale

A screenshot of Red Dead Redemption running on Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo is running a Switch sale for the holiday season -- and it's full of discounts. Chief among those is a 30% price cut on the recently released Red Dead Redemption port for Switch, alongside deals on new releases like Sonic Superstars.

Nintendo's annual holiday eShop sale features discounts on over 30 games. While new Nintendo games like Pikmin 4 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder aren't included, a lot of classic third-party games are available for a bargain.

Gaming

Red Dead Redemption is coming to Nintendo Switch and PS4 this month

red dead redemption switch ps4 release date key art

The original Red Dead Redemption is coming to two new platforms, PS4 and Nintendo Switch, later this month. It'll retail for $50 on both platforms.
Red Dead Redemption and Undead Nightmare Coming to Switch and PS4
Rockstar Games' open-world western game first launched in 2010 for Xbox 360 and PS3. It was critically acclaimed and a smash sales hit, creating a new franchise for Rockstar that could stand alongside the likes of Grand Theft Auto. It received a sequel, Red Dead Redemption 2, in 2019, but the original Red Dead Redemption remained stuck on older platforms outside of backward compatibility support on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
That's why fans got excited when a rating for the game from the Game Rating and Administration Committee of Korea popped up. We've now learned that this rating is for new Nintendo Switch and PS4 ports of Red Dead Redemption by Double Eleven Studios. Red Dead Redemption will release across both of those platforms digitally on August 17, with a physical launch to follow on October 13.

It will cost $50 and includes the base campaign as well as the zombie-infested Undead Nightmare expansion; the Red Dead Online multiplayer is not included. This is the first time Red Dead Redemption will ever be on a Nintendo system, although it doesn't look like the port will have much in the way of Switch-exclusive features. That said, a press release does reveal that this will be the first version of the game to include Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese localizations.
Red Dead Redemption comes out on PS4 and Nintendo Switch on August 17.

Gaming

Rockstar Games’ co-founder just formed an ‘absurd’ new studio

A man drives away in a boat with stolen money in Grand Theft Auto 5 art.

Dan Houser, a co-founder of Rockstar Games and one of the people behind the creation of series like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, has unveiled his new studio, Absurd Ventures.

Dan Houser was a stalwart figure at Rockstar Games since its founding and had a hand in the creative aspects of pretty much every game in the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series, along with other titles like Bully and Max Payne 3. Following an "extended break" following the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, as well as some controversy surrounding some reported issues with the game's creative development, Rockstar Games' parent company Take-Two Interactive announced that Houser had left the company in early 2020. He's had a relatively low-profile since then outside of serving on the board of a blockchain company, but now looks to be fully invested in Absurd Ventures, a company he technically founded in 2021.
Absurd Ventures is finally being revealed more publicly now, and Houser did so with an intentionally absurd announcement trailer and website with the tagline "Storytelling, Philanthropy, Ultraviolence." According to a tweet by Geoff Keighley, the actual main goal of Absurd Ventures is "building narrative worlds, creating characters, and writing stories for a diverse variety of genres, without regard to medium, to be produced for live-action and animation, video games and other interactive content, books, graphic novels, and scripted podcasts."
Absurd Ventures
It seems like Houser wants to make a creative think tank that can craft ideas that are then realized in a variety of creative mediums. It doesn't seem quite like any other game developer or movie studio out there, so it will be very interesting to see what the minds at Absurd Ventures are eventually able to come up with.