With the next mainline entry in the Grand Theft Auto series rumored to be years away, fans are wondering what series developer Rockstar Games plans to release in the interim. In the near-decade since the release of Grand Theft Auto 5, Rockstar Games has, aside from a mobile port of Bully and a VR LA Noire spinoff, only produced one other major title in the form of Red Dead Redemption 2. If a recent rumor circulated on Twitter is to be believed, the studio will be returning to the acclaimed Western franchise in the near future, offering a remastered bundle of both the 2018 sequel and the 2010 original.Announced by French gaming journalist Chris Klippel in a May 16 tweet, Rockstar Games has been working on conversions of both Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2 intended for ninth-generation consoles since 2020. Given the studio’s recent controversies stemming from previous efforts to overhaul games, it’s not clear to whom the work is being delegated, but it’s not unreasonable to believe that a new studio has been tasked with handling the Red Dead Redemption remasters.Klippel goes on to state that this project was supposed to have been announced earlier but that it has been postponed for some unknown reason. The title “Outlaws Collection” also appears in association with this leak, though Klippel affirms that this won’t be the title. Ultimately, remasters of the Red Dead Redemption games for PS5 and Xbox Series X aren’t all that surprising, as rumors suggesting this very subject have been circulating for quite some time.
Still, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Plenty of fans are still feeling spurned after the disastrous launch of the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy, with many asserting that the recreations of Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City are inferior, bastardized versions of the originals. Should Rockstar Games betray fans' trust in a similar fashion with these upcoming remasters, it could spell trouble for future Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption installments.
There’s also no word yet on whether Red Dead Redemption’s Undead Nightmare spin-off will be included in the remaster of the original, though the fact that it wasn’t mentioned alongside the other two titles suggests that it won’t be. Additionally, Rockstar Games has been tied to the upcoming Remedy Entertainment-developed Max Payne remasters, setting a precedent for re-releases that could continue until the next Grand Theft Auto installment.
