The future of Red Dead Redemption 2’s online mode, Red Dead Online, has finally been decided by Rockstar Games after a long period of time filled with confusion, fan doubt and frustration. Over the past year, Red Dead Online has not received significant content, which plunged many fans of the game into dismay. It’s a much more role-playing version of GTA Online in the Red Dead world, and many fans saw a lot of potential in it. With GTA receiving updates like heists, nightclubs and more for years now, many feel that Red Dead Online has been overlooked. This has led to an online campaign called “Save Red Dead Online” and unfortunately it doesn’t look like it’s going to get the big payoff some fans are hoping for.
In a press release, Rockstar Games touched on the future of Red Dead Online, stating that over the past few years, it has “constantly directed more and more resources towards the development of the next installment in the Grand Theft Auto series”, which has led to changes in support for Red Dead Online. The game will still receive changes and improvements, but they will be the focus of attention and not “major themed content updates” as was the case in previous years. Whatever the case, Rockstar confirms that it will be building on existing content in Red Dead Online, but it doesn’t look like anything as big as heists is coming in the future.
Along with seasonal special events and experience improvements – plus other changes to improve and maintain a healthy Red Dead Online environment – we plan to evolve existing modes and add new smaller missions this year, rather than releasing major themed content updates like in previous years, and we will continue to highlight and share the creative efforts of our Red Dead community at every opportunity through the News Feed and beyond.
At the moment, Rockstar Games is knee-deep in work on the next Grand Theft Auto game and will most likely be working on it for the foreseeable future. While new content is already in the pipeline for GTA Online, it’s a much larger and more popular game that has been further bolstered by recent versions for Xbox Series X and PS5. Whether Red Dead Online will ever return in a grandiose form remains to be seen.
