Red Dead
Rockstar fans were starting to get excited about some new announcement in the Red Dead universe, teased a little while ago, but now that the end result has been revealed, they’ve flipped a switch into being quite annoyed about it.
The project is…a port of Red Dead Redemption for the Nintendo Switch and PS4/PS5. Not a remaster. Not a remake. A literal port. And it’s not even being done by Rockstar, it’s by Double Eleven Studios. Fans are concerned that the last time something like this was outsourced, it resulted in the disastrous GTA Definitive Edition launch.
The port also costs $50, very high for a 13 year old game that is apparently not getting any significant updates at all with the release, just the ability to run on these platforms. And while not doing upgrades may make more sense for Switch or PS4, the game does not have a dedicated PS5 version when obviously that console would be capable of dramatic improvements to the original game, if those were actually developed.
The port, out October 13, changes nothing about the game. It does have Undead Nightmare. There are no 4K or 60 fps modes, not even on PS5. PS4 and Switch versions will also not have multiplayer support. Weirdly, it seems like the “best” way to play Red Dead Redemption on modern hardware is through Xbox One/Series X/S backwards compatibility. One of the reasons? Well, you don’t have to re-buy it for $50, for starters.
Reportedly, an actual, full remaster of Red Dead Redemption was killed because of the 2021 GTA Definitive Edition disaster. But Rockstar appears to be trying to have things both ways, releasing the game for newer hardware while putting far less work into doing so. Yet charging close to as much as the original game cost in the first place.
The reveals have seen their YouTube trailer debuts underwater with likes/dislikes. Everyone was hoping for something far more significant from the franchise besides a port. The ultimate future of Red Dead as a series remains unclear, as Rockstar is about to go heads down into full GTA 6 mode. While Red Dead Redemption 2 was made during GTA 5’s dominance, it remains to be seen if they’ll do that again with the same franchisee, and it feels unlikely that they will. But as ever, Rockstar is sharing almost nothing about their plans until they’re close to actually manifesting.
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