The online version of Red Dead Redemption 2 has potentially taken its final breath – for now, at least. The news that Rockstar is shelving any further development on Red Dead Online in favor of the continued development of GTA VI has fans feeling mournful and as if they’ve lost a friend. In a manner of speaking, many fans have.
Red Dead Redemption Online may not have received all the attention that Grand Theft Auto Online does, but the platform meant a great deal to its loyal fanbase.
In the wake of Rockstar’s announcement, fans have taken to Twitter, where #RedDeadFuneral is currently trending, to say their last goodbyes to an icon.
‘RIP #RedDeadOnline
Forever in our hearts.#RedDeadFuneral’
‘I find quite fitting to be in an abandoned graveyard like Odd Fellow's rest as a tribute to the abandoned online @RedDeadRDC #RedDeadFuneral’
‘A beautiful game, ruined and abandoned because of greed. #RedDeadFuneral #SaveRedDeadOnline’
‘What a great community
What a great game
What a great time#SaveRedDeadOnline #RedDeadFuneral’
These are just a few of the sorrowful gestures that have been flooding Twitter since the announcement. Of course, we have to keep in mind that all Rockstar has done is shelf any further content and development on the Red Dead Online platform while the company shifts focus to potentially the most ambitious video game in history – Grand Theft Auto VI.
However, many fans see the issue a little differently. To them, this is just the final blow for a game and platform that Rockstar hasn’t paid much attention to, apart from content drops. Many fans even used #RedDeadFuneral as a platform to vent and voice their frustrations with the game.
We cannot fault players for feeling this way when the facts paint the same picture. Red Dead Redemption Online is, for all intents and purposes, a forgotten game. Rockstar has another online variant of a popular game – GTA Online, a multiplayer experience tied to GTA V.
Even though GTA V is five years older than Red Dead Redemption 2, the former still receives regular updates and increased developer attention. This is while fans have had to suffer with Rockstar’s lack of support toward Red Dead Online.
Many believe that it is not necessarily the announcement, but rather Rockstar’s blatant disregard of Red Dead Online’s fanbase that brings players to the in-game cemetery beside Blackwater Chapel. Fans have flocked to the Valentine settlement location to take photographs of their characters dressed in black and to down a virtual stiff one at the nearby Smithfield Saloon.
