TheRed Dead Redemptionfranchise has enjoyed a huge amount of success over the years, being the only other major Rockstar IP to rival theGrand Theft Autofranchise and carving out its own legacy in modern pop culture. A lot of this success can be attributed to the clear level of care and detail that Rockstar weaves throughout theRed Deadgames, but this can lead to huge periods of downtime when fans are left wanting more.
Despite the lingering acclaim and success thatRed Dead Redemptionstill maintains thanks to the release ofRDR2, fresh content for the franchise has been few and far between in recent years. While this is fairly understandable as Rockstar gears up for the massively anticipated launch ofGrand Theft Auto 6, there is still a feeling thatRed Dead Redemption 2did not achieve all that it could have throughout its post-launch life. These recent trends for the franchise are starting to change, however, with the closing months of 2024 bringing some excellent updates that hopefully spell brighter days for the IP going into 2025.
The legacy thatRed Dead Redemption 2possessesto this day is a testament to just how successful the game has been since its launch in 2018, with the title being considered by many as one of the best story-driven experiences to ever come from the gaming medium. With over 65 million copies sold and with the title controversially missing out on the Game of the Year award in 2018, the earlier days ofRDR2painted a bright future that many fans were expecting to maintain the tremendous momentum that the franchise had built.
Having said that, the post-launch life ofRed Dead 2has been quite dormant, with new developments for the franchise being few and far between since 2018. Many fans had hoped for a remaster of the originalRed Dead Redemptionin the wake ofRDR2,for example, but this never materialized; instead, the game received ports to consoles like the Nintendo Switch. Rockstar also infamously continued its recent trend ofnot releasing any post-launch story DLC forRed Dead Redemption 2, after the wildly-successfulGrand Theft Auto 5faced the same fate.
WhileGTA 5had the hugely popularGTA Onlineto fall back on to make up for this,Red Dead Redemption 2is a much more story-driven title, with its lack of narrative DLC being all the more bizarre given the franchise’s excellent track record with this kind of content.2010’sRed Dead Redemptionfamously featured theUndead Nightmareexpansion, for example, which is considered by some to be some of the best single-player DLC ever made.
Things also initially looked promising forRed Dead Online, with this potentially being a great conduit for post-launchRDR2content, but this was quickly halted. In 2022,Rockstar surprisingly announced thatRDOwould not receive any more major content updates, leaving the game in a much weaker state while being completely reliant on seasonal events and community-made content.
Despite these recent pitfalls, theRDRfranchise has been picking up a lot of positive momentum recently, with it being announced that a fully optimizedPC port is finally coming for 2010’sRed Dead RedemptionandUndead Nightmareon October 29. This marks the first time that the originalRDRhas ever been officially available on PC, marking the end of a 14-year-long wait for some players.
To compound this, a significant amount of effort went into the recent October update forRed Dead Online, with a range of brand-new challenges and cosmetics accompanying the return of limited-time modes based around Halloween. While there is still a long way to go for theRDRfranchise to live up to a lot of the post-launch expectations that were built aroundRDR2, Rockstar is clearly taking a step in the right direction to finish off 2024.
Red Dead Online
WHERE TO PLAY
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