It’s been a hot minute since we talked about Red Dead Redemption 2, which launched last month in a flurry of “best game evers” against a backdrop of reported labor abuses. That launch performed spectacularly for Take Two and Rockstar, according to T2’s latest investor call: Rockstar shipped 17 million copies of the title, by far besting Red Dead Redemption’s sales up to 2017… in just over a week. (Wouldn’t it be grand if the crunching employees would see a cut of the wild proceeds that “exceeded [T2’s] expectations”?)
Anyway, what matters most to MMORPG fans? The MMO component. The conference call didn’t reveal too much new; the company reiterated that it’s still expected in a public beta by the end of November and wouldn’t talk monetization.
“Red Dead Online is an evolution of the classic multiplayer experience in the original Red Dead Redemption, blending narrative with competitive and cooperative game-play in fun new ways,” T2 president Karl Slatoff said. “Using the gameplay of Red Dead Redemption 2 as a foundation, the vast world of Red Dead Online will be ready to be explored alone or with friends, and will feature constant updates and adjustments to grow and evolve this experience for all players. Access to Red Dead Online will be free with the purchase of Red Dead Redemption 2 on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.”
Finally, let me rain on the parade: You know how there are suffragettes in the game, who can be helped by the protag as part of a mission? Yeah, some gross dudes decided to film clips of their toons “punching, killing and hogtying a suffragette character in-game,” one of them under the even grosser title “Beating up annoying feminist.” According to the BBC, YouTube initially took down the videos and has since inexplicably returned them to service with content warnings.
Half a decade, thousands of lines of dialogue, "superhero scuba suits" and a real sense of family: I spoke with the cast of #RDR2 about the lengthy, difficult and wonderful process of making a new classic https://t.co/ELEpybLHpp
— Patrick Shanley (@pshanley88) November 8, 2018
