Rockstar Games is hard at work onGrand Theft Auto 6, and it’s likely to be busy with it for the next few years. However, at some point, Rockstar Games is likely to move ahead with a threequel to its other flagship franchise:Red Dead Redemption.It may not seem like it, butRed Dead Redemption 2is nearly five years oldand fans are already speculating about whenRed Dead Redemption 3will take place, who the best protagonists could be, and so on.
However,Red Dead Redemption 3will come with some challenges thatGTA 6won’t. Rockstar’s biggest hurdle with the latter is living up toGrand Theft Auto 5, as its story mode, core gameplay, and online mode made it one of the most profitable entertainment products of all time. It still tops sales charts more than a decade after the original release. Meanwhile,Red Dead Redemption 3will need to live up toRDR2’s story modebut otherwise live down some of its biggest shortcomings, those that sent shockwaves through the community time and again.
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Seemingly intending to repeatGTA Online’s success,Red Dead Redemption 2’s post-launch support was largely focused on its online counterpart. There are some skeletons there too, but one big blow of this decision was thatRed Dead Redemption 2never received any single-player DLC support. However, fans were calling for it before, during, and long after the launch to no avail.
Part of this is because of the popularity ofRed Dead Redemption’s Undead Nightmare DLC, which saw an alternate reality where John Marston had to fight off zombies to save his family.RDR2’s Undead Nightmare 2was something fans wanted for a long time, but many would have settled with any single-player DLC support. It didn’t come, and wheneverRed Dead Redemption 3rolls around, fans won’t have forgotten.
However,Red Dead Redemption 3has to live down the Online counterpart and the lack of Rockstar Support for it too. This is especially true if Rockstar announces another version ofRed Dead Onlinewhenever the threequel comes around. As many fans know, Rockstar put plenty of resources into this online mode early on, hoping to capture lightning in a bottle twice.GTA Onlinewas, and still is, a huge success. Rockstar bet onRed Dead Onlinedoing the same, but it didn’t. It had its fans, but the success wasn’t near the same.
Because of this, Rockstar support eventually dwindled into nothing.Red Dead Onlinefans were then treated to lackluster content for some time before Rockstar confirmed it was dropping support for the game mode. The game is basically on autopilot, with fans even holding afuneral forRed Dead Onlinenearly a year ago. Needless to say, those who dedicated a lot of time and resources to this version ofRed Dead Onlinewould be immediately suspicious of another attempt.
Now, none of this is to doubt the success ofRed Dead Redemption 3; its success would just be different fromGrand Theft Auto. RDR1andRDR2show how much people love the world, the attention to detail, and the heartfelt stories, whileGTArelies on sheer carnage on all levels, including multiplayer. Attempting to replicateGTA’s approach withRed Dead Redemption 2just held the game back on single-player DLCand let down players who were invested in the online counterpart. Knowing this and cleaning out these skeletons in the closet should be a key part ofRed Dead Redemption 3’s development and post-launch plans.
