Red Dead Redemption 2 will be released next month for PS4 and Xbox One, with no current port for PC confirmed.
And some recent appeared to confirm that Rockstar Games were set to skip the massive altogether.
A new interview was released earlier this week which appeared to suggest that the development team were focusing on solely the console version of the game.
During a live stream, a representative from the studio was quoted a saying that Red Dead Redemption 2 was “absolutely not coming to PC”.
This was seen as a major shock to many, as it was expected that a port would be announced in the future.
This is based on how Rockstar handled the launch of GTA 5, waiting years before porting it over.
Some believe this was done to protect console sales of the game from piracy on PC, although it may have had a lot more to do with the technical challenge of bringing it to Steam.
None the less, being told no PC port for RDR2 is being planned was a significant upset for many.
And then came the good news.
It appears that this quote is actually a mistranslation and doesn’t actually include the finality of the original response.
A new translation from the multiplayer.it stream quotes the representative as saying that “the game is for PS4 and Xbox.”
And while that isn’t a brilliant response for those wanting to play the game on PC, it doesn’t rule it out.
Many look to the original Red Dead Redemption and how that remained a console exclusive as a way of judging the chances of a new port.
However, while RDR never made it to PC, we’re betting it won’t be the same for the sequel.
Red Dead Redemption may have had a limited multiplayer experience, but it had nothing in the way of what GTA Online offers.
GTA 5 Online is a massive hit on PC and continues to draw large numbers of players on Steam.
The sheer monetary value of Red Dead Online suggests that the game will be ported over, much in the way GTA 5 was.
It would even leave the door open for Rockstar Games to port over RDR2 for the PS5 and Xbox Two, with new enhancements.
In other news, analysts predict that Red Dead Redemption 2 could be another massive success for Rockstar Games and parent company Take-Two Interactive.
“We continue to favour Red Dead for upside this holiday, while our longer-term thesis is unchanged: Take-Two has the biggest runway to benefit from digital shift, [microtransactions] shift, margin expansion and multiple expansion from streaming content deals,” analyst Justin Post writes.
“We are above guidance and have modelled for 18 [million] units, but given [“Grand Theft Auto 5″] success, eight years of development and consumers’ desire for original content, we see upside potential.”
That upside potential will rely on RDR2’s online experience mimicking the success of GTA Online.
And from what Take-Two has been teasing about it, it looks like Rockstar Games are trying their best to make it something worth switching over for.
Take-Two’s CEO, Strauss Zelnick believes the multiplayer experience could really be a massive hit, telling an earnings report: “When we first released Grand Theft Auto V, and we had Grand Theft Auto Online on its heels, we had never done anything like that.
“We, Take-Two, we Rockstar Games, had never done anything like that. We didn’t know what to expect. And the cadence of its ongoing extraordinary success to is new to us.
“Does it inform how we look at titles that come after? Well, naturally, it does. But the nature of our approach collectively, specifically, the nature of Rockstar Games approach, is never to be derivative and always to shatter expectations.
“And I believe that Red Dead Redemption 2 will shatter expectations and that the online experience also will be extraordinary, but unexpected. And my view is that all great hits are, by their very nature, unexpected.
“So that’s the goal. There is an expectation around the table, here, of course, there’s an expectation at Rockstar Games, and there is an expectation on the part of consumers.”