An internal Microsoft document has corroborated rumors of native PS5 and Xbox Series X|S ports of Red Dead Redemption 2. The document in question was submitted by Microsoft in court during its legal showdown with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Red Dead Redemption 2 PS5 port was reportedly canceled

Rumors of RDR2’s native PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions had been swirling for a while before a known insider claimed in July 2022 that Rockstar Games had canned the ports. Many felt that RDR2 on current-gen platforms was a given after GTA V, and it’s not clear why the developer may have changed its plans.

In the aforementioned document, Microsoft is exploring potential Game Pass deals with a list of games that it seems to have tentative release windows for. None of the games on the list are speculative, with RDR2’s current-gen ports slated for the second quarter of FY 2023. Considering we’re past this release window, it seems that the report of Rockstar dropping the game was also true.

Interestingly, Microsoft considered the possibility of closing a deal with Take-Two Interactive on RDR2 to be “very low.” It also considered the game to have a medium “wow factor.”

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Following reports from multiple reliable sources that Rockstar Games has canned Red Dead Redemption 1 and GTA 4 remasters, another report has emerged claiming that the developer also cancelled plans for Red Dead Redemption 2 PS5 and Xbox Series X/S ports. This update comes from the same insider, Tez2, who originally revealed that Rockstar dropped the aforementioned remasters after Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition‘s poor reception – a claim that was later corroborated by other outlets as well.

Red Dead Redemption 2 PS5 release would have followed GTA V current-gen launch

The idea of Red Dead Redemption 2’s current-gen release makes sense. Although not as successful as GTA 5, which spanned three console generations along with GTA Online, Red Dead Redemption 2 sold like hot cakes and came with its own take on multiplayer in Red Dead Online. The multiplayer portion may have benefitted from adding current-gen players to the mix. However, support for Red Dead Online dwindled, with Rockstar later admitting that it needs to invest time and resources into GTA 6 in order for the upcoming game to meet expectations. With that, it looks like any hopes of Red Dead Redemption 2 on current-gen platforms have been dashed.

Per Tez2, it doesn’t look like Rockstar Games wants to ship out a new enhanced version of #RedDeadRedemption2 for next-gen consoles anytime soon.

It’s an absolute crime to abandon this game over GTAV. pic.twitter.com/lZWsJTX8sq

— Ben (@videotech_) July 7, 2022

On the flip side, considering Rockstar has had very little output since 2013, it probably makes more financial sense for the developer to move on to new projects while supporting the cash cow that is GTA 5. Banking on one game isn’t exactly a smart idea when there is potential for more.

In other news, Ubisoft has sparked backlash from the wider gaming community after it emerged that the publisher is making Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD inaccessible to PC owners, and Stray’s day-one update and trophies have been published ahead of release.

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Lack of Red Dead Online updates coupled with silence from Rockstar Games has led to fans planning a funeral for the game. Unlike Grand Theft Auto Online, Red Dead Online hasn’t received the kind of developer support that players have been asking for, with the community issuing numerous calls to save the game, only for their pleas to fall on deaf ears. Now, they’re all donning their best black suits to lay the game to rest.

Take-Two CEO previously addressed lack of Red Dead Online updates with a non-answer

Who’s up for it then? A funeral to celebrate one year of Red Dead Online being abandoned?

Dress up in your best funeral attire, get your friends to join, tag us in pics & use the hashtags below!

Save the date: Wednesday July 13th. Are you in?#RedDeadFuneral #SaveRedDeadOnline

— Red Dead News (@RedDeadRDC) July 5, 2022

The “Save Red Dead Online” campaign was so popular that Take-Two Interactive (Rockstar Games’ parent company) chief executive officer Strauss Zelnick addressed it during an earnings call back in May. Unfortunately, however, his statement wasn’t much of a response. He batted the ball back into Rockstar Games’ court, stating that the developer will be addressing the matter.

Rockstar Games talks about the updates that are coming, and we’re working on an awful lot at Rockstar Games. I’ve heard the frustration, it’s flattering that they want more content, and more will be said by Rockstar in due time.

Recent reports suggest that Rockstar Games is shifting its focus to Grand Theft Auto 6 (or whatever the game will be called) alongside working on GTA Online.

In other news, big day for God of War Ragnarok fans who received a ton of new information including a release date, and bad news for those who were looking forward to PS5 console exclusive Forspoken as the game has been delayed yet again.

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Another claim that a Red Dead Redemption remake and next-gen port of Red Dead Redemption 2 has hit social media, but don’t get caught up in the hype. The source is dubious at best, and they are using artwork from a previously debunked “leak.” Despite this, several publications have latched onto the rumor regardless of its lack of legitimacy.

Latest Red Dead Redemption remake/RDR 2 next-gen port rumor is likely false

Since the PS4 and Xbox One launched, rumors of a Red Dead Redemption remake or port have circulated on a regular basis. However, the frequency of these increased exponentially when RDR 2 was released, and players found that parts of the RDR map were modeled that went entirely unused. Additionally, since Rockstar announced a next-gen version of Grand Theft Auto 5, we’ve gotten a ton of “leaks” that one was coming for RDR2.

The latest “leak” comes from a Tweet by French game journalist, Chris Klippel, who immediately destroys any credibility by using artwork from a debunked claim that a listing for “Red Dead Redemption – The Outlaws Collection” appeared on Amazon featuring RDR Remastered and an enhanced version of RDR2. They even cropped it to remove “The Outlaws Collection” so people wouldn’t immediately remember the fake leak.

Publications that have run this story have stated things like Klippel has “proved to be reliable in the past when it comes to Rockstar Games’ unannounced projects.” However, we can’t find a single instance where he was 100% on the money. He’s been “predicting” that a Red Dead Redemption port/remake is just around the bend for years now.

The truth is, outside of a tiny crowd, most of those that claim to be “insiders” and “leakers” only get a very narrow look into a game’s development. Surrounding these people are a vast network of flim-flam men who try to repeat what someone more reputable has said in the hopes of riding on their clout. Others just outright make things up because they can just delete the evidence later because it’s not like anyone is keeping track of this stuff. Time will tell where on the scale Klippel falls.

In other news, Norman Reedus leaks Death Stranding 2 again, and Syphon Filter is getting trophies on PS Plus Premium.

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Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has finally answered concerns from the vocal “Save Red Dead Online” community, noting that he acknowledges its frustrations. The hashtag #SaveRedDeadOnline movement on Twitter began in January this year after fans were disappointed with the lack of content updates planned in Red Dead Online, particularly when compared to GTA Online.

Take-Two still hasn’t announced any new major content for Red Dead Online

After months of no response from Take-Two, Zelnick commented that he is aware of the movement during a quarterly earnings call with IGN:

“Rockstar Games talks about the updates that are coming, and we’re working on an awful lot at Rockstar Games. I’ve heard the frustration, it’s flattering that they want more content, and more will be said by Rockstar in due time.”

An update to this story, Take-Two has reached out to follow up and clarify that Zelnick's affirmation of T2's ongoing support for Red Dead is with regards to keeping the servers online only, and Rockstar is entirely in charge of content. #SaveRedDeadOnlinehttps://t.co/quc9iJBiuD

— Rebekah Valentine @ GDC (@duckvalentine) May 16, 2022

Since the statement, some fans have hoped that this meant that more significant updates are planned for Red Dead Online, but Take-Two has since clarified (via the tweet posted above) that Zelnick was “solely referring to the online servers.” The publisher reaffirmed that it is Rockstar that is in charge of content updates, seemingly distancing itself from the original comment.

The #SaveRedDeadOnline campaign began trending earlier this year as a reaction to a press release on the official Rockstar Games website that didn’t provide any significant details on future content for the game, apart from bonus XP and Gold Bars opportunities. The last main update to Red Dead Online was Blood Money in July 2021 that expanded on the criminal underworld in Saint Denis. Since then, GTA Online received a Los Santos Tuners patch with new street races and auto shops, the story-focused expansion The Contract with Dr. Dre, and a new Adversary Mode featuring Franklin and Lamar.

According to Steam Charts, the number of concurrent players for Red Dead Online has fallen sharply over the last year. In the month when Blood Money was released, there was an average of 3,741 players, but for April 2022, that has dropped by nearly half to about 1,955 players.

In other news on Take-Two, the company has no plans to discuss a potential deal with FIFA have its split with EA, and while it will listen to buyout offers, the company prefers independence.

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After what Red Dead Online fans saw as yet another sign of laziness from Rockstar Games, they are now taking to Twitter with the #SaveRedDeadOnline hashtag to criticize the game’s lack of DLC content. Specifically, fans are asking why the developer is only releasing bonus events for existing game modes in Red Dead Online, while older games such as GTA 5 continue to receive frequent content and even story updates.

Why is ‘Save Red Dead Online’ trending?

A press release on the official Rockstar Games website resulted in the hashtag circulating online. Starting January, Rockstar announced that it would provide bonus XP and Gold Bars to a variety of existing game modes. It also said it would discount existing cosmetics, but did not provide any details on additional content. This essentially means that Red Dead Online will go almost half a year without any new game modes, missions, or stories. While the game did receive a fair few updates back in 2020, the last major one was the Blood Money update back in July 2021.

This, as many fans pointed out, stood in stark contrast to another heavy-hitter online franchise under Rockstar’s belt: GTA Online. Just last month, the game received a massive story update featuring the return of Franklin as well as popular rapper and producer Dr. Dre. This inspired a great deal of backlash online, with a number of users tweeting for Rockstar to put its focus on Red Dead Online:

https://twitter.com/videotech_/status/1479117619726721024

Rockstar give my homies playing red dead some new content please worth their time.#SaveRedDeadOnline

— Mutahar (@OrdinaryGamers) January 8, 2022

Since then, thousands of tweets have appeared with the #SaveRedDeadOnline hashtag. Many are fans reminding Rockstar that there is still a dedicated community that loves the game. Others are fans who are expressing disappointment and feelings of being left out. Only time will tell whether Rockstar decides to respond to these criticisms.

In other news, a PlayStation State of Play presentation is rumored for next month. The Battlefield 2042 subreddit was also locked down due to toxicity among its community.

[Source: PushSquare]

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Take-Two Interactive has released its financial report for the previous quarter of the year. Many of its franchises have received updated sales figures, including the Grand Theft Auto franchise. GTA has now reached over 355 million sales across its many games. There are also new figures for some of its other major franchises, including Red Dead Redemption that has nearly reached 62 million units sold.

Despite a lack of new games or even major recent updates for Grand Theft Auto Online, the Grand Theft Auto franchise has managed to accumulate more than 355 million sales between its titles. That’s a 5 million increase since August 2021 and that is almost entirely down to Grand Theft Auto V, which has now reached a total of over 155 million sales alone. In fact, GTA V is the fastest “entertainment release” to ever reach $1 billion in retail sales. Since the release of the Los Santos update in GTA Online, recurrent spending on microtransactions has increased by 33%, making the game one of the top two contributors to recurrent spending for Take-Two Interactive.

Rockstar’s other major franchise of the moment, Red Dead Redemption, has sold nearly 62 million units. The most recent game in the series, Red Dead Redemption 2, sold another 1 million copies during the last three months to reach a total of more than 39 million sales. It is the second best-selling title in the US based on dollar sales. Moving away from Rockstar, Gearbox continues to do well with the Borderlands franchise. Thanks solely to Borderlands 3, the franchise sold another 1 million units through the past three months to reach nearly 72 million sales. Borderlands 3 has now sold around 14 million units and is still 2K’s fastest selling title.

You may recall I said GTA Online was one of the top two contributors to recurrent spending for Take-Two Interactive. Well, the other is the NBA 2K franchise, which has now reached a total of more than 118 million sales. NBA 2K22 has sold more than 5 million units and saw more players in its first month than any prior release in the franchise. The game had a 4% increase in the number of people spending on microtransactions and a 58% increase in new players spending money on microtransactions.

Finally, PGA Tour 2K21 has sold more than 2.5 million units. That’s the good news. The bad news is there’s still absolutely nothing about a new game in the franchise with the financial report making it clear there won’t be a PGA Tour 2K22 game during the current fiscal year. Meanwhile, EA’s rival EA Sports PGA Tour has also been delayed and currently doesn’t have a new release window as the team will be “providing more information on our launch plans in the coming months.”

pic.twitter.com/RjIEpQZBSL

— EA SPORTS PGA TOUR (@EASPORTSPGATOUR) November 3, 2021

Despite the delay of Marvel’s Midnight Suns, Take-Two Interactive’s release slate still looks incredibly healthy for the rest of the financial year. Later this month there will be Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition as well as a limited physical release of Borderlands 3 on PlayStation 5. At some point between January and the end of March 2022, OlliOlli World will be released, while March is the month we will also see WWE 2K22, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, a standalone version of GTA Online, and the PS5 version of Grand Theft Auto V.

[Source: Take-Two Games, Take-Two Games via Seeking Alpha]

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At the same time the PlayStation Plus games were leaked for November 2021, two games were also leaked for this month’s PlayStation Now lineup. According to Dealabs user Billbil-kun, those games were Mafia: Definitive Edition and Celeste. According to the official list released by Sony, that leak was also correct. Joining those two titles arriving on PlayStation Now tomorrow are Final Fantasy IX and Totally Reliable Delivery Service.

Mafia: Definitive Edition is a PS4 remaster of the original PlayStation 2 game. This time there is an expanded story and tweaked gameplay to go with the expected visual improvements. However, those wanting an experience close to the original game can do so with Classic Mode. Set in a fictional US City called Lost Heaven in the 1930s, the game follows taxi driver Tommy Angelo who finds himself caught up in a mafia dispute after driving two members of the Salieri family to safety after an ambush. After the Morello family then destroys his cab, he joins the Salieri family for a new career.

Final Fantasy IX is the third of five Final Fantasy games to join PlayStation Now. Zidane Tribal and the Tantalus Theater Troupe kidnap the heir of Alexandria, Princess Garnet Til Alexandros XVII, only to find they’ve unwittingly helped her to escape the castle. The Princess and her personal guard, Steiner, join the troupe as they aim to take down her mother, Queen Brahne of Alexandria, who started the war of the nations in Gaia.

Celeste is a hardcore platformer where players help Madeline conquer her inner demons and reach the top of the Celeste Mountain. The controls are simple but the game’s more than 700 screens of challenges and secrets are far more difficult. Finally, Totally Reliable Delivery Service is a chaotic ragdoll platformer where player can team up with friends to deliver goods despite being part of a fairly disastrous courier company.

All of the games will be available in PlayStation Now from tomorrow, November 2. All but one seem to be permanent additions to the service, the exception being Mafia: Definitive Edition that is only available on PlayStation Now until February 28, 2022. However, bear in mind some games will also be leaving the service tomorrow. NieR: Automata, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Streets of Rage 4 are all due to be removed on November 2.

[Source: PlayStation Blog, Dealabs]

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Take-Two Interactive is the latest company to release its financial report for the previous quarter of the year. Many of its franchises have received updated sales figures, including the Grand Theft Auto franchise that has now sold over 350 million units across its many games. There are also new figures for some of its other major franchises, including The Outer Worlds, BioShock, Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands, and NBA 2K.

Grand Theft Auto V continues to fly the flag for the GTA franchise and the game has now shipped more than 150 million units between digital sales and those sent to retailers. The GTA franchise as a whole has shipped more than 350 million units. The success has continued thanks to constant updates for Grand Theft Auto Online. The latest update that introduced Los Santos Tuners set a new record for the largest number of players on day of release and throughout the opening week. Overall the online part of the game increased its audience size by 72% and saw a 77% increase in new players. This is only set to continue when GTA V is released for PS5 on November 11, the same day a standalone version of GTA Online will also be released.

Meanwhile, Red Dead Redemption 2 has now sold more than 38 million units and the standalone version of Red Dead Online continues to be successful. Between them, they helped the audience size to grow by 26%. The recent release of the Blood Money update helped to add a significant number of new players and also broke records for the largest number of players on day of release for any update in the franchise’s history. The franchise as a whole has stayed strong at nearly 60 million units sold.

Borderlands franchise sales are now around 71 million units. Take-Two confirmed the next game in the franchise, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, is set to be released at some point between January and March 2022. The NBA 2K franchise also continues to be successful, selling over 112 million units. Between its console and mobile titles, there are more than 2.7 million people playing the NBA 2K games on a daily basis. The latest title, NBA 2K21, has seen almost a 30% increase in returning players. NBA 2K22 releases on September 10 and hopes to continue this success.

Finally, other franchises to hit notable milestones include BioShock with over 38 million units and Sid Meier’s Civilization with over 58 million units. In terms of individual titles, The Outer Worlds reached 4 million units sold thanks to the release of the Murder on Eridanos DLC, while Kerbal Space Program has now sold more than 5 million copies.

[Source: Take-Two Interative (1, 2), Seeking Alpha)

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A recent study found that those who played Red Dead Redemption 2 were more likely to correctly identify photos of animals in the game. It also found that people who played the game recently, and those who chose the “naturalist” role in RDR Online scored higher on the test. The study provides evidence that immersive experiences like RDR2 which feature many real-world animals, some of which are now extinct, can help teach gamers natural history and be more accessible and appealing than traditional educational games. Who knew games could be fun and educational?

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Exeter and Truro College, and published by the British Ecological Society. A total of 586 participants, 444 of which actually played RDR2, were subjected to a test in which they would identify 15 species of animals that exist in the game. First, the participants were given a simple picture of the animal in a field and asked to name the animal in question. If they couldn’t answer, the researchers then gave them a list of five names to choose from, including species that were very similar to the correct answer.

The study found that, on average, those who played RDR2 were able to identify 10 out of the 15 animals, whereas those who didn’t could only identify 7. Additionally, it found that those who recently played the game, chose the Naturalist role in RDR Online, or lived in North America had a higher probability of answering correctly.

When the researchers asked participants about their experiences in the game, many found that the immersive quality of the game helped shape many of its memorable events. One notable example included how predators could be seen hunting their prey without any input from the player. Another respondent also noted that after completing the Carolina Parakeet hunting mission, the game would tell players that the species was officially extinct.

While RDR2 by nature of being a video game still has some inaccuracies—most of the game’s predators, for example, are overtly hostile and will always attack the character, despite animals not actually doing this in real life—the study notes that that immersive experiences can help players learn about wildlife and animal behavior.

So, the next time someone points out you’re playing too much Red Dead Redemption 2, tell them that you’re studying to become a wildlife biologist!

[Source: Gamingsym]

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