We have an update on a rumor about Red Dead Redemption possibly coming to PC.
About two weeks ago, Tez2, who has already proven to be a reliable source for leaks and rumors relating to Rockstar’s games, revealed that they found data labeling Red Dead Redemption on Rockstar’s PC client. The data even identified Undead Nightmare, indicating that the well regarded zombie themed expansion was also on the way.
However, in a new post on GTA forums, Tez2 has made some clarifications. Tez2 said:
“At this point, the unintended push wasn’t meant for an announcement but was likely a result of whatever Rockstar is cooking for the launcher with the new branch. They shifted to this branch about a month and a half ago, and the May 14th launcher update was the first one based on this branch.
The strings appeared the day prior, so the timing is rather convenient. The scenario behind this seems to be just a simple case of them moving stuff from the old branch to the new one and then pushing it into the public branch.
Basically, pushed too early. We might be at the stage where those strings were just added to the dev builds, rather than the one where everything is nearly finalized.”
So, Tez2 now believes, unfortunately and credibly, that the Red Dead Redemption data they found in the Rockstar PC client did not actually indicate that Rockstar was ready to bring the game to PC. It’s an indication that Rockstar plans to make a PC port, but not that it was coming anytime soon.
This isn’t a complete debunking of the information Tez2 found. Rather, it’s a clarification that everyone, Tez2 included, jumped to conclusions. Rockstar hasn’t talked about this at all, and that’s why Tez2 has had to reassess this data.
In fact, as we now know, Rockstar just revealed that they won’t be releasing Grand Theft Auto 6 as soon as everyone hoped. Rockstar’s statement seemed to cut the wind out of the sails of analysts who were creating this idea among investors that Grand Theft Auto 6 alongside the PlayStation 5 Pro was going to ‘save’ the industry, but that’s neither here nor there.
We shouldn’t forget that as disappointing as this news is, there’s another outcome that could have been even more disappointing. And that would have been if Rockstar didn’t do their due diligence to make a good port of Red Dead Redemption for PC.
The recent rerelease of Red Dead Redemption to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 was made by British port studio Double Eleven. That studio has proven they can do more than this basic port with other games, but that just speaks to Rockstar scaling to just about meeting expectations.
Rockstar does understand, the standards raised by PlayStation and Xbox on their PC ports of their games, means that they need to do more for their PC port of Red Dead Redemption. So, let’s hope for the best that they do what’s necessary to make this the definitive version of the game, and it can’t be too crazy to seek out a DRM-free port while they’re at it. If we have to wait a while, they can make it worth it.
