A fan-made Red Dead Redemption project has been officially shut down, just days after Take-Two Interactive's filed lawsuit against developer Johnathon Wyckoff came to light. Wyckoff had been working on a project called "Red Dead Redemption Damned Enhancement Project," designed to both give the game's visuals an upgrade and make it playable on Windows PC.
Wyckoff put his Red Dead Redemption project on hiatus for the first time back in September, though he then resumed work on the project in November. He was then forced to announce the cancellation of his project on December 27, the day after Take-Two filed its lawsuit in a New York court.
According to Take-Two's lawsuit, the company's main gripe with the project is its PC port of Red Dead Redemption, which the company never officially did for its game--or as Take-Two put it on the lawsuit, they had "not yet released" the game for PC (despite the fact that the more recent Red Dead Redemption 2 is on PCs). In the suit, Take-Two attached multiple screenshots proving Wyckoff's continued work on the project despite the company "repeatedly" asking him to stop; Wyckoff, for his part, maintains that just a modding project and not an infringement.
Wyckoff unhappily announced the cancellation over Twitter with a message about Red Dead Redemption and modding for Take-Two, writing, "Take Two fine you win. RDR1 project cancelled happy. Stop the law suit i have a damn life. You guys should have waited i was gonna contact you this week. Geez you don't need to sue. Despite what you think you guys really killed modding." However, it seems possible for all the drama between Take-Two and Wyckoff to at least be settled peacefully, as Wyckoff returned to Twitter on December 28 to confirm that the company had indeed reached out and he was currently "working with Take-Two."
While things are being sorted between the company and Wyckoff, it was likely only a matter of time before a project of this kind surfaced for Red Dead Redemption; the game first released for consoles back in 2010, meaning it's been nearly a decade with no hint of an official PC port. It's possible that Take-Two's wording on the lawsuit citing that they had "not yet" published a PC version of Red Dead Redemption could mean there are eventual plans for one, although they've certainly had plenty of time to do it before now. Red Dead Redemption can still technically be played on PC by using Sony's PlayStation Now streaming service, but it's terribly not surprising that a fan with game development skills finally decided to take matters into his own hands after all this time.
Wyckoff hasn't added any more information at this time, except to say over Twitter that until the case was resolved he couldn't divulge anything going on. Despite Wyckoff's inability to fight the lawsuit, as he also tweeted that he didn't have the funds, perhaps dialogue between the two parties will yield something out of the whole ordeal after all. If not, well, at least there are new rumors of a Nintendo Switch port for Red Dead 2 to keep fans hopeful.
Red Dead Redemption is available for Xbox 360 and PS3.
Source: Twitter