The constant “war” between PC and console gamers has been lasting for years, with each claiming that their platform is the better one. One side keeps boasting over more FPS, while the other gloats with how perfectly each game runs. Of course, there is also a thing of exclusivity. There are several games that are not available for every platform, and that makes quite a lot of difference. Similar to last year’s Spider-Man video game, Red Dead Redemption got an exclusive sequel to the series. Well, more like a prequel, but more on that later.
Last year was a great one for consoles (especially PS4). Another game that was released exclusively for consoles was Red Dead Redemption 2. The game is a third installment of the franchise and a prequel to the RDR — a game that came out at the beginning of this decade. RDR2 looks incredible, and there is no secret that every PC gamer would love to be a part of that world.
Now, there are some new rumors and claims that the game will finally arrive to PC. If this is true, it will be one of the best news for the PC community in recent history. The previous part of the game never arrived to PC, and it was a real shame. It looked similar to Grand Theft Auto IV, but only with a Western set up. RDR2, on the other hand, is a game filled with thrills, beautiful landscapes, incredible story, and an open world that just waits to be explored.
Players can try so many different things from hunting to playing card games in a saloon, like one of the many types of blackjack. You can also try other mini-games if you are into gambling. There are also poker and dominoes that you can play against NPCs in the game. Moreover, among the mini-games, the one that fits best in the whole RDR world is five finger fillet. The game involves a knife and a hand. We all saw that one skilled individual who was able to repeatedly stab the knife between their fingers in movies.
What We Know so Far About the Release
There are several indications that PC players might finally get a version they can play. Let’s start with things we know so far.
A few days ago, Australia Classification Board rated the game. Again. Even though the game was released a year ago, for some reason, they did it again. Which only led us to believe that the rating might be for the PC release.
Of course, a similar thing also happened to GTA V when the online version of the game was released. GTA Online came two years after the console version of the game. For some reason, Rockstar always kept consoles as their priority, and PC versions were always a few years behind. Another hint that there might be a PC version of Red Dead Redemption 2 is that Rockstar recently created their own launcher. As a promotion, they gave away a free copy of San Andreas (check that out if you didn’t know already). It might also serve as an early proof that the game is coming to PC. While it might not be guaranteed because of the launcher, creating their own “store” might be similar to another case. Valve released Half-Life 2 on their brand new platform Steam many years ago.
Among the newest batch of information and hints, there is one on their website as well. To be precise, in the website’s source code. Someone pointed out that the code for the website has a reference to the accomplishment or achievements for RDR2 — the part bears name rdr2_pc accomplishments.
Furthermore, in one of the interviews from this year, one of the investors mentioned that there were no downsides to releasing it on PC. Similarly, one of the programmers at Rockstar stated on his LinkedIn profile that he was working on RDR2. That wouldn’t be strange at all if there wasn’t a PC written next to it.
Of course, none of these are solid proof that anything is happening. Said programmer for Rockstar Games may have made a mistake or a simple oversight, and other representatives talked about it rhetorically. To this day, probably the best proof that the PC version is on the way is from data mining. The companion app that came with the original version of the game suggests that the PC version might be in the works. Several parameters in the app show different PC options for graphics like TXAA, particle light and shadow quality, anisotropic quality, and so on.
Finally, there was a leak recently that shows an off-screen recording of the PC version of the game with all the settings. The company neither confirmed nor claimed it was fake. All we could see from the video was that all the fonts looked correct and that it seemed like the game was indeed on the way.
If we take a look at the previous games by Rockstar, we can see that the time varies between the console version and PC port. For example, it took seven months for the fourth part of the GTA series to arrive on PC. The fifth installment came five months after the Xbox One and PS4 release, but seventeen after previous-gen consoles. On the other hand, Max Payne 3 came only two weeks after the console version.
The Future of RDR2
The second part of the RDR series remains one of the rare games from Rockstar that never received their PC version. While the future remains uncertain and there is no definitive proof nor official statement, we can still hope that one day, PC games will become richer for this masterpiece.
Taking into account that GTA V managed to set so many records and sell so many copies for PC, it seems like an unwise decision to skip releasing Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC as well. In the next few months, we will see what will happen with their new launcher. And more importantly, if all of it was just preparing the stage for the arrival of one of the best games of the previous last year.