Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2 is an upcoming Western-themed action-adventure video game developed and published by Rockstar Games. It is scheduled to be released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 26, 2018. The game is a prequel to the 2010 game Red Dead Redemption, and will be the third entry in the Red Dead series. Set in 1899, it follows the story of outlaw Arthur Morgan, a member of the Dutch Van der Linde gang.

Gameplay
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a Western-themed action-adventure game set in an open world environment. It is played from either a third or first-person perspective and the player controls Arthur Morgan, an outlaw and a member of the Van der Linde gang. The game features both single-player and online multiplayer components.

The game will continue to use the Honor system from its predecessor, Red Dead Redemption, which, based on how the player interacts with non-playable characters (NPCs), will affect how settlements, towns, and other groups will react towards Morgan.

The game's main story is expected to take 60 hours to complete.

Premise
In 1899, the era of the Wild West is coming to an end. After a robbery in the town of Blackwater goes wrong, outlaw Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang are forced to flee. With the authorities and the best bounty hunters in the nation massing on their heels, the gang must rob, steal, and fight across miles of American wildness and civilization to survive. As internal divisions threaten to tear the gang apart, Arthur must choose between his own ideals and his loyalty to the gang.

Among the returning characters are John Marston and Dutch Van der Linde, the protagonist and an antagonist from the previous game, respectively.

Development
Red Dead Redemption 2 is being developed by Rockstar Studios, a collaborative effort between all of Rockstar Games' studios functioning as a single team, using the proprietary Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE). Woody Jackson, who co-composed the score of Red Dead Redemption, reprises his role. In an interview with Harold Goldberg of magazine New York published on October 15, 2018, Dan Houser, Rockstar Games' co-founder and vice-president for creative, and head writer for Red Dead Redemption 2, stated that they had been working 100-hour weeks "several times in 2018". Many sources interpreted this statement as "crunch time" for the entire development staff of the game, comparable to similar accusations made by wives of Rockstar San Diego employees in regards to the development of the game's predecessor, with Rockstar Games receiving strong criticism. In a statement sent by Rockstar to various media outlets that same day, it was clarified that the work duration mentioned by Houser only affected the senior writing staff for Red Dead Redemption 2, which comprised himself, Mike Unsworth, Rupert Humphries and Lazlow Jones, and that the duration had only been the case for three weeks during the entire development. Houser also added that the company would never expect or force any employee to work as long as was stated, and if anyone was staying late at the development studios, it would be due to their passion for the project.

Release
Red Dead Redemption 2 was announced by publisher Rockstar Games in October 2016. In the two days prior, the company had used various social media platforms as well as their own website to release two teaser images in the color and theme of Red Dead Redemption. The teaser images led to considerable attention and raised the stock price of its parent company Take-Two Interactive by nearly six percent. On the day of its announcement for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, some fans started petitioning Rockstar Games for the game to be made available on Microsoft Windows as well. Per an exclusivity agreement with Sony Interactive Entertainment, certain online game content will be timed exclusives for the PlayStation 4. Originally due for release in the second half of 2017, the game has been delayed twice: first to Q1/Q2 2018, and later to October 26, 2018.

The game's debut trailer was released on October 20, 2016, depicting the open world environment, and the second and third trailers—released on September 28, 2017, and May 2, 2018, respectively—introduced the game's characters and story. A trailer released on 9 August features the first gameplay footage. It demonstrates the shooting and horse mechanics, and the ability to maintain the player's gang and camps. To spur pre-order sales, Rockstar collaborated with several retail outlets to provide special edition versions of the game. The "Special Edition" includes exclusive single-player content, while the "Ultimate Edition" features additional online content. The "Collector's Box" is a collection of physical merchandise relating to the game.

An online multiplayer portion of the game called Red Dead Online is also in the works and is planned to release as a public beta in November 2018. During an IGN Q&A session with various Rockstar developers, when asked why it will not be available simultaneously with the base game, design director Imran Sarwar answered “Red Dead Redemption 2 is an absolutely massive story-based game that we hope people will be lost in for a long time and we want people to experience everything that world has to offer before we build on that with the Online experience” while also stating that “we [at Rockstar] see them essentially as separate products that will grow and evolve independently of each other” and saying that the team has learned after launching online games that there are bound to be a few issues and that they wish to roll out the game as smoothly as possible. It is also mentioned that the game takes many of the favorite elements of Grand Theft Auto Online while also further expanding the original game’s ideas.

Sales
Since the previous installment in the series was among the bestselling games of the seventh generation of video game consoles, many analysts believed that Red Dead Redemption 2 would be one of the highest-selling games of 2018 and would have a great impact on other game sales during the fourth quarter. When discussing the delay until October 2018, a writer from Forbes said "A huge arrival for [Red Dead Redemption 2] could be a crater that dampens sales of all competitors in that window, so I have to imagine this shockwave is being felt pretty hard right now around the industry." In July 2018, The NPD Group, a market research company, published an article titled "Video Game Industry Predictions for Holiday 2018", where author and industry analyst Mat Piscatella predicted that Red Dead Redemption 2 would be the best-selling game of 2018, outselling other blockbuster titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Battlefield V, and Fallout 76.