Update: Red Dead Redemption 2 was pushed back to spring 2018. The game is expected to release sometime after April next year.
Few games are as hotly anticipated as Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2. The sequel—or prequel—to 2010’s Red Dead Redemption was announced last October, and the internet hasn’t shut up about it ever since. Discussion about the game is mostly limited to what the release date might be, what features will it have and whether or not it will grace the PC.
The game has been officially announced for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, with Rockstar cooking up a special deal with Sony allowing PlayStation 4 players to access add-ons earlier than their Xbox One counterparts. However, no word about a PC version has been heard from any official source, leaving some fans worried. A petition has already kicked off to gather support though, showing Rockstar that there is a clear demand for such a port.
The Red Dead franchise has never really come to PC before. Red Dead Revolver was only available on the original Xbox and the PlayStation 2, and Red Dead Redemption was available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The latter of the two games has since been made accessible on the current generation of consoles, and it’s semi-available on PC through Sony’s PlayStation Now streaming service. You can stream the game to a PC, but only play with a DualShock controller and suffer through terrible performance. It’s definitely a frustrating experience.
Those who say that Red Dead Redemption 2 will come to PC, but at a later date, cite the case of Grand Theft Auto V. It was initially launched on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, only to come to current generation consoles a year later, and then another year passed before it finally arrived on PC. However, in the case of Grand Theft Auto V, the franchise has always been present on PC, whereas this would be the first proper outing for a Red Dead game on PC.
The fact that the original Red Dead Redemption never got ported in spite of the clear demand for that to happen doesn’t really fill us with hope that Red Dead Redemption 2 will come to PC. We don’t know why Rockstar opted to skip the PC for the first game, and as far as we know, it wouldn’t have been a massive undertaking to put together a serviceable port. Grand Theft Auto V ended up being the absolute best it could be on PC, taking advantage of the platform’s potentially stronger hardware.
For all we know, Rockstar’s deal with Sony could be part of the reason. They provide a streamable version of the current Red Dead Redemption to PC players, which is the only way to play the game on that platform right now. This has pretty much killed any hope of the previous title hitting PCs in a more official capacity. However, if Red Dead Redemption 2 also arrives on PlayStation Now, then it’s obvious Sony wouldn’t want an actual port out on the market.
If Red Dead Redemption 2 does eventually launch on the PC, players shouldn’t expect any news of this until well after the game has launched on consoles. Rockstar would likely implement a method similar to what we saw in the case of Grand Theft Auto V, a game which benefited greatly from the staggered release schedule. Since it was launched three times over the course of three years, on various platforms, some players ended up buying the game two or three times, greatly boosting sales.
If there is no announcement for Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC, some players who would have otherwise preferred to play with mouse and keyboard will settle for a console. Then, if the game does eventually come to PC, they would likely repurchase it on their preferred platform, netting Rockstar greater revenue. This model clearly worked well in the case of Grand Theft Auto V, so there is no reason to assume Rockstar wouldn’t opt for something similar.
We ourselves are still holding out hope for a PC version of the game, preferably with mod support, since consoles still struggle to close the hardware gap with high-end gaming PCs. Project Scorpio may change that but we don’t know much about the platform when it comes to concrete resolutions and frame rate. That said, we won’t know for a while whether this will come to pass.
George was a community contributor to ICXM, writing 1 article in 2017 covering Windows and PC. ICXM operated as an independent Xbox and Windows gaming outlet through the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative, drawing from a rotating bench of editorial volunteers.