Red Dead Redemption remake rumors seem exciting, but don't hold your breath
Sorry John Marston fans, these "leaks" seem too good to be true.
All of the recent Rockstar Games rumblings have primarily focused on the eventual release of Grand Theft Auto 6, which is reportedly in development right now, but on Tuesday, unconfirmed information surfaced online claiming that Rockstar has a big surprise for fans of its other major game franchise: Red Dead Redemption.
An alleged leak posted anonymously on the sketchy online forum 4chan claimed that Rockstar is currently working on a Red Dead Redemption Remake set for launch early next year. The anonymous user didn’t provide any concrete evidence to support their claims. They just said that this would be a way for the company to hold fans over as they await the release of GTA 6.
Here’s the juiciest part of the now-deleted 4chan post:
“It’ll be a RDR1 remake for PC, [PlayStation 5], and Xbox Series X. Basically RDR1 in RDR2’s engine, with some of the new shit like better hunting, and fishing. A few [voice actors] have been brought back (including Rob Wiethoff) to record some new lines, I’d expect new missions. Announcement sometime soon, release is scheduled for [January 1 - June 30 2021. [GTA 6] announcement is summer 2022.”
The full alleged leak that was deleted off of 4chan.
The mention of a potential RDR Remake caused excitement in Reddit’s gaming community, but trusted Rockstar leaker Yan2295 slashed those hopes on Wednesday.
“I really don’t understand why everyone is jumping on this ‘news,’” they tweeted. “It’s coming from a random post made by a random person on 4chan. There is not [one] bit of evidence to back this up.”
Yan2295 has accurately leaked information about GTA Online in the past, which proved he has some connections at Rockstar and has made him a fan-favorite insider. His public shunning of the alleged leak doesn’t bode well for its legitimacy, plus such a quick turnaround for such a monumental task as remaking all of RDR doesn’t quite add up.
Remaking 'RDR' would be a monumental undertaking.
The Inverse Analysis — It took Rockstar eight years to develop RDR 2 and while the developer could repurpose some of the game’s assets for a RDR remake, the timing just doesn’t add up. RDR 2 was released in October 2018, which would mean there would be roughly three years between the sequel and the remake of the original. That’s simply not enough time to ship a fully polished product that would meet Rockstar’s standard of quality.
While RDR’s map does slightly overlap with RDR 2, it’s vastly different and would require Rockstar to retexture, remodel, and potentially redesign large swaths of virtual countryside. As a comparison, the Resident Evil 2 Remake was first announced in 2015 and wasn’t released until 2019. That’s four years for a game that is much more linear than RDR, so it doesn’t look good for a RDR Remake at least for now.
To top it off, Rockstar has never released a remake for any of its classic games. Now might be the time it starts after seeing how well-received the Resident Evil 2 and 3 were. Without any hard evidence, the RDR Remake is nothing more than wishful thinking, but we wouldn’t be made at Rockstar if it surprised us.
