Rumors of an upcoming Switch port of Rockstar’s recently-released Red Dead Redemption 2 were all but put to rest a few months ago when the now-retired Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime announced in an interview with Hollywood Reporter that the game wouldn’t be making an appearance on the hybrid gaming machine. Though his statements seemed pretty finite at the time, speculation concerning RDR2 on the Switch has once again stirred thanks to an Australian Target shopping catalogue.
A physical edition of the catalogue included Nintendo’s console alongside the Playstation 4 and Xbox One on the list of compatible gaming machines, and fans seem to think this may indicate an upcoming announcement on the part of either Nintendo or Rockstar. There may be some credibility to these claims; Walmart Canada infamously let slip that Bethesda’s Rage 2 and Gearbox Software’s Borderlands 3 were forthcoming well in advance of their official announcements, and this could be yet another example of a retailer jumping the gun.
Unfortunately, Target has since corrected their Red Dead Redemption 2 listing on their website to state that it would only be available for the PS4 and Xbox One. This likely means that any mention of the Switch alongside Rockstar’s game was a simple error, though it’s worth noting that other titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Battlefield V were correctly listed in the magazine.
The kicker here seems to be that, while audiences would no doubt be extremely receptive to a Switch translation of the record-setting game, it might not be all that feasible. While AAA titles like 2016’s Doom and Wolfenstein II: The New Collossus have received Switch ports, games as visually detailed and ambitious as RDR2 are few and far between on the system. It may be true that Nintendo managed to cram something as expansive and marvelous as Breath of the Wild onto a Switch cartridge, but the fact remains that, were Rockstar’s game to come to the console, it would likely come with more than a few caveats and restrictions.
Back when Reggie Fils-Amie denied rumors of a Switch port, he emphasized the fact that it hadn’t been shot down due to hardware restrictions—according to him, the Switch is more than capable of running the game. It was more an issue of the game having been under development far before the idea of the Switch was even being tossed around. What’s more, with rumors of Nintendo gearing up to release a VR add-on alongside a new and improved pro version of the console, it doesn’t seem like horsepower would necessarily keep RDR2 off of the system.
Related: GTA Is making A Lot More Money Than Red Dead Redemption 2 Online