Red Dead Redemption 2 Release Date and News Update, Rumors

Jun 18, 2015 08:09 PM EDT

Even though rumors of the release date of Red Dead Redemption 2 have been circulating for a while, right now, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, an annual video game convention held at the LA Convention Center every year is nearly over, and there has been no formal announcement from Rockstar Games about a sequel to the popular western game. This is what is known about Red Dead Redemption 2 rumors and possible release date. 

Nerd Reactor says that the video Game developer and publisher Ubisoft recently conducted a survey of what games that gamers most wanted to see.  Several of them included Batman: Arkham Knight, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Dead Island 2, Halo 5: Guardians, Just Cause 3, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Mortal Combat X, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.  One game that keeps appearing on player-inspired lists like these is a Red Dead Redemption sequel. 

There is a Reddit Post from an alleged former Rockstar audio engineer saying that the new game will be Red Dead Redemption 2: Legends of the West.  This anonymous tipper said that the sequel will actually be a prequel, taking place in the same area as the original game, but twelve years before the first original game.  If this is true, then perhaps the other details are true such as the possibility of playing with three different characters.  Two of these characters, Irish and Seth, appeared in the first game, but the third character will be customizable with players choosing the name, clothes, and even the breed of horse he (or maybe even she?) will have. 

Other features will be "new, stranger missions" as well as an ability to join gangs or even law enforcers of some towns.   Players will also be able to bring in a posse of up to 4-8 friends, which was technically a co op  on the current version of the game. 

The Latino Post reveals that Rockstar's partner with Red Dead Redemption, Take Two Interactive has recently revealed that "an unannounced AAA game will be released in the current fiscal year".  A Triple A, or AAA, game is one with the highest amount of promotion as well as the highest quality of developing, which could mean that the company is either working on a sequel to Mafia 2 or Red Dead Redemption

If you are not familiar with Red Dead Redemption, it is an open world western game that has sold over 12.5 million copies and won several Game of the Year awards from various gaming publications.  The game focuses in the year 1911, on a man named John Marston, a former outlaw who discovers that his wife and son are kidnapped.  The government is the one who holds his loved ones hostage, and in order to get them back, John will have to become a bounty hunter and seek out the three members of his former gang.

Players can freely roam the west, and seek out quests to help them along their way.  Of course, since this is the old west, there are many gunfights as well as lots of time on a horse.  An online multiplayer mode allows up to 16 players to engage in both cooperative and competitive gameplay.  After it was released, there was a very successful downloadable content (DLC) added where Martson had to find a cure to an infectious zombie plague in Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare

Assuming that the rumors of Red Dead Redemption are true, it might be possible to see a release date this year or the next, depending on how long it takes to get this game out.  The issue is if the game is a prequel, then technically, the backgrounds are already made and just have to be altered to look "younger".  This could mean that the game could have a sooner release date rather than later.