Rockstar continued its dominance of open world gaming with the 2010 release of Red Dead Redemption, setting a new benchmark for the studio and genre. While fans and critics were in awe of the stunning representation of the old west and immersive gameplay, Rockstar was only just getting started, with very early development on Red Dead Redemption 2 beginning shortly after the release of the original game.
The gap between the first and second game ultimately clocked in at nearly a decade, with eight years of total development to bring Red Dead Redemption 2 to life. With so many details to keep track of for such an ambitious project, so much transpired in the lengthy production of this staggering sequel, all the way from its early days all the way to its release on store shelves.
From Los Santos to the Old West
Of course, in between Red Dead Redemption and its sequel, Rockstar unleashed a juggernaut onto the gaming scene in 2013 with Grand Theft Auto 5, which maintains high sales numbers to this day. Originally launching at the tail end of the PS3/360 generation, Grand Theft Auto 5 was then later ported the following year to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with an assortment of technical improvements to take advantage of the more powerful hardware.
Although on the outside this may have just appeared to be standard procedure in terms of remaster work, but behind the scenes at Rockstar, this process was crucial to the production of Red Dead Redemption 2. The work on the remaster helped the studio become comfortable working with the new hardware, learning its many technical parameters and what could be achieved with the specs inside the machines. This information acquired during the impressive graphical jumps GTA 5 made between generations helped Rockstar better understand what was possible with the consoles at hand, providing a better blueprint for how to map out the ultimate vision of an interactive wild, wild west.
Red Dead Development
With story outlines for the game being completed by late 2012, actual development on the title began. Not long into the process, Rockstar came to realize that its initial plan to divide the work amongst a number of different studios was far too cumbersome to organize, so it opted to instead merge all of these teams into one large unit made up of nearly 2000 employees, with a production budget in the 100 million dollar range making it one of the most expensive games in the past decade.
Shortly thereafter, recording sessions for the extensive dialogue within the game had begun, with Roger Clark being chosen to portray Red Dead Redemption 2's lead character Arthur Morgan. Rockstar also made a very conscious decision at this time in development, to only allow the player to control one character at a time, as opposed to Grand Theft Auto 5's three principal protagonists. This was to follow the philosophy of wanting to create a truly immersive and realistic game world that felt less like a list of missions and a place that could be explored at each gamer's own individual pace.
These ideas of immersion permeated throughout all aspects of the design, all to ensure that the player felt as connected to the locations as possible. This ranged from the player being part of a gang constantly on the move, each with unique personalities to smaller details like having to wait for facial hair to grow before shave it or having to polish firearms to maintain proper functionality. So much care and attention was put into the development in fact that gamers still find stunning details in Red Dead Redemption 2 long after its initial release.
Fruits of Labor
After four years of deep development and rumors beginning to mount within the industry, Rockstar felt it time to show the official reveal trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2 on October 16, 2016. Initially slated for late 2017, Red Dead Redemption 2 had to be delayed not once, but twice in order to ensure the highest level of quality and polish possible.
Ultimately, the marketing saw players stunned by the Red Dead Redemption 2 gameplay overview trailer released in August of 2018, only elevating the level of hype to astronomical levels ahead of the October launch just two months later. From initial concepts to complete game, Red Dead Redemption 2 was an eight year investment for the many members in a massive production team of a multi-million dollar budget game which Rockstar finally released to the world on October 26, 2018, hotly anticipating what the public reception would be.
The game was a near instant sensation, raking in huge praise from players and gaming critics alike as well as becoming the second gigantic financial win in a row for Rockstar. Within a matter of days after its launch, Red Dead Redemption 2 outpaced the original's sales with a whopping 17 million total number of units sold to consumers (which is over half of its total sales numbers to date), putting another hit under Rockstar's belt. It was a long hard road to complete its most grand scale adventure yet, but Rockstar yet again proved why it is the best in the business.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available for PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and Xbox One.