It hasn't been a good week for fans of Rockstar games, and there are many millions of those. While there remain many players of GTA Online, it's good to know that Rockstar is knuckling down for the next installment in the single-player experience in Grand Theft Auto 6. But it's sad news for fans of its other great series. Earlier this week we heard chatter that Rockstar has shelved remasters of Red Dead Redemption and GTA 4 as it focuses on developing GTA 6. Then we heard that Red Dead Online won't have any more major updates. Now we hear that current-gen ports of Red Dead Redemption 2 has also been cancelled or put on hold. The news is courtesy of reliable Rockstar news leaker Tez2, who earlier leaked the news about the canned Red Dead Redemption and GTA 4 remasters, which was later corroborated by Kotaku. Now Tez2 has reported that the developer is no longer interested in launching a PS5 or Xbox Series X/S enhanced version of Red Dead Redemption 2 or at least any time soon.
Red Dead Redemption 2 would be considered a standout success by most developers and publishers, if it weren't for the extraordinary numbers posted by GTA 5. But the cowboy simulator, widely regarded as a masterpiece, has sold 43 million copies. So there's plenty of Arthur Morgan fans. However, the game does not have current-gen versions despite the clamour for it among many fans.
Originally launching on PS4 and Xbox One, it is a marvellous techinical achievement. Later, it was found that the Xbox One X was the best way to play it since the beefed up console could run the game at native 4K at a near locked 30fps. Meanwhile, playing Red Dead Redemption 2 on the more powerful PS5 and the game does not run at native 4K, but is instead an upscaled 1920 x 2160p. The Xbox Series X/S consoles are also basically running the Xbox One X version.
It's a shame as Red Dead Redemption 2 remains one of the best looking games to date, and a current-gen version would make it shine even more. But it looks like we will have to wait since GTA 6 is consuming all resources before it.