Months after its initial launch, and Red Dead Redemption 2's Red Dead Online mode has finally exited beta with a major update that added new story missions, activities, and more. However, it seems the new update has also had some unintended side effects, including a rather bizarre issue where towns are being filled with the bodies of dead, often burned, horses.

The Red Dead Online dead horses issue appears to be cause by a newly discovered item duplication bug in the game. Like item duplication bugs in the Red Dead Redemption 2 base game, players are able to exploit Red Dead Online to clone items in their inventory, with the latest method involving fish and horses.

The large piles of dead horses in Red Dead Online has reportedly been found on both the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game, as evidenced by anecdotal accounts on social media. The Red Dead Online dead horses are also causing performance issues, so it's likely Rockstar will work to remove them from the game if it hasn't succeeded in doing so already.

Random piles of dead horses aren't the only thing that has been plaguing Red Dead Online since the recent update. Users have also reported Red Dead Online crashing constantly since the update, with Rockstar's supposed fix doing little to fix the problem. Players also appear to be having difficulty playing the new story missions, and there are players in some regions that can't even play the online poker due to regional laws.

Needless to say, Red Dead Online's transition from beta to full release hasn't exactly been smooth sailing. However, the mode is apparently raking in significant chunks of cash for Rockstar Games, and so it's likely that the company will be quick about fixing these issues so that it doesn't risk alienating players.

Some of these fixes will come in the form of a hotfix, whereas others will be through more substantial updates. Red Dead Online players will just have to stay tuned for more information, and may want to keep their eyes peeled for more bizarre occurrences like the dead horses.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is out now for PS4 and Xbox One.

Source: Kotaku