[00:08] Rockstar Games had only explored relatively&nbsp; rudimentary modes of multiplayer in its games&nbsp;&nbsp; before the advent of Red Dead Redemption&nbsp; in 2010. The American West-set adventure,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:21] studio s first step into the wild west of&nbsp; expansive online gameplay. It made sense, then,&nbsp;&nbsp; that Grand Theft Auto 5 s multiplayer suite, GTA&nbsp; Online, allowed the team to unfurl its wings and&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:36] do so in a way that generated multimillion-dollar&nbsp; earnings via in-game purchasing. But GTA Online&nbsp;&nbsp; didn t achieve incredible success overnight.&nbsp; Several years and various post-launch updates&nbsp;&nbsp; would land before the experience hit its stride&nbsp; with 2015 s Heists update. The hope was that&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:54] Rockstar would afford Red Dead Redemption 2&nbsp; s online component the same room to grow. &nbsp; Red Dead Online entered beta weeks after the&nbsp; prequel s story campaign arrived in stores. It&nbsp;&nbsp; almost instantly became mired in controversy,&nbsp; too, mostly because of balancing issues with&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:09] the in-game economy. Rockstar addressed&nbsp; the community s concerns with haste,&nbsp;&nbsp; leading many to believe the move marked&nbsp; the start of a cadence that would always&nbsp;&nbsp; see the developer quickly respond to&nbsp; player feedback. This rapport between&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:21] the production team and its Red Dead Online&nbsp; user base lasted for only so long, however. &nbsp; A frustrated community felt the need to beg for&nbsp; meaningful content updates within two years of the&nbsp;&nbsp; multiplayer mode s release. And after about three&nbsp; years, pleas for Rockstar to Save Red Dead Online&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:38] had turned into a trending hashtag that even&nbsp; caught the attention of executives at Red Dead&nbsp;&nbsp; publisher Take-Two Interactive. Unfortunately,&nbsp; these noble efforts proved for naught, since,&nbsp;&nbsp; once again, the future of the western-themed&nbsp; franchise found itself playing second fiddle to&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:54] the creation of new Grand Theft Auto content. This is the tragedy of Red Dead Online. &nbsp;
[03:22] Given Red Dead Redemption 2 s expansive&nbsp; single-player campaign, Rockstar Games&nbsp;&nbsp; thought it prudent to spread out the launch&nbsp; of its online component. According to Rockstar&nbsp;&nbsp; North Design Director, Imran Sarwar, the team&nbsp; wanted to ensure players had plenty of time to&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:36] see Arthur Morgan s story through to completion&nbsp; before diving into a multiplayer adventure. Thus,&nbsp;&nbsp; the Red Dead Online beta enjoyed a staggered&nbsp; release across four days starting on November 27,&nbsp;&nbsp; 2018, one month after Red Dead 2 s late October&nbsp; arrival. The gradual rollout also served to&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:54] mitigate potential technical issues. However,&nbsp; the studio seemingly failed to anticipate the&nbsp;&nbsp; scrutiny it would come under when early adopters&nbsp; closely analyzed in-game purchasing options. &nbsp; GTA Online thrusted newcomers onto the path&nbsp; of becoming millionaires right off the bat,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:09] providing the ultimate fantasy fulfillment in an&nbsp; open-world metropolis. In turn, the rewards for&nbsp;&nbsp; completing missions totaled thousands or even&nbsp; millions of in-game dollars. Red Dead Online&nbsp;&nbsp; allowed for no such wish fulfillment because of&nbsp; its Wild West setting. Store items were priced&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:25] at no more than a few bucks, reflecting late&nbsp; 19th Century pricing. Players received meager&nbsp;&nbsp; payouts for finishing activities as a result.&nbsp; This Cash-based currency proved troublesome&nbsp;&nbsp; from the outset, yet the premium Gold Bars&nbsp; currency intended for special cosmetics&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:40] and faster item unlocks garnered most of the&nbsp; community s ire during the early beta phase. &nbsp; Notably, Gold Bars demanded an arduous grind.&nbsp; One Redditor calculated the average player would&nbsp;&nbsp; need to devote approximately eight hours of their&nbsp; time to obtain a single Gold Bar. The problem was&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:57] nestled in the fact that several items, better&nbsp; horse breeds included, could only be purchased&nbsp;&nbsp; with Gold Bars; fully modifying a rifle cost up to&nbsp; 30 Gold, for example. Red Dead Online s unbalanced&nbsp;&nbsp; economy didn t constitute a pay-to-win issue,&nbsp; per se, but users expressed concerns over it&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:13] potentially facilitating a situation whereby those&nbsp; incentivized to engage in microtransactions for&nbsp;&nbsp; faster unlocks could gain an unfair advantage. As such, despite generally positive first&nbsp;&nbsp; impressions, the beta represented the first&nbsp; instance of a community-driven grassroots campaign&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:29] to Save RDR2 Online. The campaign primarily&nbsp; centered on publicizing the proper Rockstar-run&nbsp;&nbsp; channels through which users could submit&nbsp; feedback. Such a coordinated effort worked to&nbsp;&nbsp; some extent, given the studio s speedy development&nbsp; of a patch to rebalance the economy system. &nbsp;
[05:45] The microtransactions debacle aside, many had&nbsp; high hopes for the future of Red Dead Online&nbsp;&nbsp; ahead of its official launch in May 2019. And much&nbsp; of that optimism stemmed from developer promises,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:57] assurances consisting of constant updates and&nbsp; adjustments to grow and evolve the experience.&nbsp;&nbsp; The Co-Studio Head of Rockstar North, Rob&nbsp; Nelson, reiterated this notion months after&nbsp;&nbsp; the beta ended, telling readers of Official Xbox&nbsp; Magazine the future is full of surprises while&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:13] insisting that remaining mindful of community&nbsp; feedback would serve as the primary goal. &nbsp; Statements of this nature weren t made in a&nbsp; vacuum. Rockstar understood it would take time&nbsp;&nbsp; for Red Dead Online to find a comfortable rhythm,&nbsp; especially since lead developers recognized that&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:28] GTA Online only began to reach the extent of its&nbsp; capabilities when the Heists update touched down&nbsp;&nbsp; in 2015. However, Nelson and the San Diego team&nbsp; s Senior Producer, Josh Needleman, both expected&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:40] Red Dead to achieve high levels of success at&nbsp; a quicker pace. In pursuit of such ends, the&nbsp;&nbsp; company hoped to stagger GTA and Red Dead content&nbsp; updates, following a nebulous release schedule&nbsp;&nbsp; that would encourage players to switch back and&nbsp; forth between the two. Needleman admitted in an&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:55] IGN interview that production plans would likely&nbsp; stymie this even-handed approach. But Red Dead&nbsp;&nbsp; faithful could not have predicted just how much&nbsp; favor Grand Theft Auto would gain long-term. &nbsp;
[07:11] Red Dead Online's beta phase concluded in May&nbsp; 2019, bringing about the multiplayer suite s&nbsp;&nbsp; complete release and a massive update. The&nbsp; patch included an assortment of new Land of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:23] Opportunities story missions, whose content&nbsp; proved contingent on which side of the law&nbsp;&nbsp; users occupied. Outlaws joined up with&nbsp; notorious criminals to commit misdeeds;&nbsp;&nbsp; meanwhile, those who followed the Gunslinger&nbsp; route lent their guns to more worthy causes,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:37] such as chasing down a gang in Valentine. Free Roam missions, extra Posse Versus contests,&nbsp;&nbsp; and the Overrun Showdown Mode filled&nbsp; out the substantially sizable update,&nbsp;&nbsp; too. Rockstar also introduced Offensive and&nbsp; Defensive play styles, respectively tailor-made&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:54] experiences targeting users who enjoyed PvP&nbsp; or wished to avoid battling fellow players.&nbsp;&nbsp; Myriad gameplay improvements and a&nbsp; Hostility System to mitigate griefing&nbsp;&nbsp; additionally served as integral parts of&nbsp; Red Dead Online s first major update. &nbsp;
[08:09] On the back of this release, the crew at&nbsp; Rockstar set to work on further embracing&nbsp;&nbsp; Red Dead 2 s role-playing mechanics. Rob Nelson&nbsp; claimed this approach was, in part, inspired&nbsp;&nbsp; by three key elements that beta users openly&nbsp; voiced an interest in a more personal connection&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:24] to their player-created character, improved&nbsp; balancing, and ponchos. In September 2019, then,&nbsp;&nbsp; the studio unleashed three new Frontier Pursuits,&nbsp; Specialist Roles in the form of Bounty Hunters,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:38] Collectors, and Traders. The Bounty Hunter path&nbsp; revolved around tracking wanted criminals, the&nbsp;&nbsp; Collector role emphasized exploration and treasure&nbsp; hunting, and the Traders option boasted an&nbsp;&nbsp; entrepreneurial bent for business-minded folks. Red Dead Online s earliest Outlaw Pass,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:55] the equivalent of a Battle Pass, entered the&nbsp; mix to boot, packing in a free version with&nbsp;&nbsp; fewer rewards and a premium offering worth 35 Gold&nbsp; Bars. At the time, it all seemed a solid start,&nbsp;&nbsp; with Rockstar touting the introduction of Roles&nbsp; as a fundamental change to the title s long-term&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:12] future. Better still, Legendary Bounties followed&nbsp; not too long thereafter, turning some of Red&nbsp;&nbsp; Dead s most formidable outlaws into targets for&nbsp; players to hunt down and capture dead or alive. &nbsp;
[09:24] Subsequent months by and large proved a mixed&nbsp; bag, filled with hope, anticipation, and few&nbsp;&nbsp; high marks as far as the community was concerned.&nbsp; Some of the most exciting discourse spawned from&nbsp;&nbsp; supposed in-game zombie sightings, which sparked&nbsp; speculation about a possible sequel to the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:39] original game s Undead Nightmare expansion. When&nbsp; nothing came of these findings, Red Dead players&nbsp;&nbsp; concluded the zombies were dead bodies glitched&nbsp; into standing upright at inopportune times. &nbsp;
[09:51] In addition to launching Red Dead 2 on PC and&nbsp; Google Stadia, Rockstar closed out the year on a&nbsp;&nbsp; relatively high note. The Moonshiners role joined&nbsp; the multiplayer mode as a Frontier Pursuit in&nbsp;&nbsp; December 2019, inviting Traders to invest in the&nbsp; bootlegging business. Outlaw Pass number two also&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:09] launched alongside the Moonshiners content, as did&nbsp; new clothes and an increased number of inventory&nbsp;&nbsp; slots for the wardrobe. In hindsight, many would&nbsp; later reflect on this point as the end of a rather&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:21] fleeting era in Red Dead Online history. By January 2020, the PC version of Red Dead&nbsp;&nbsp; s multiplayer had become inundated with hackers&nbsp; harassing players or instigating the banning of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:36] innocent users. This issue didn t impact the&nbsp; community at-large but further accentuated&nbsp;&nbsp; Rockstar s failure to solve the cheating problem&nbsp; that had plagued GTA Online for years. And&nbsp;&nbsp; if GTA hadn t received a proper fix, Red Dead&nbsp; players on PC were more or less out of luck. &nbsp;
[10:53] On top of hacking and cheating concerns, the Red&nbsp; Dead Online user base had also resigned itself&nbsp;&nbsp; to accepting a drought of meaningful content&nbsp; updates in early 2020. The frustration bubbled&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:05] to a boil in mid-July, seven months after the&nbsp; Moonshiners content dropped. Some players let&nbsp;&nbsp; off steam in-game by participating in a fashion&nbsp; competition organized by the game s Discord&nbsp;&nbsp; and Reddit communities. In June, a similar&nbsp; competition gained quite a bit of popularity&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:21] for its Saint Denis theme. The fan-run event in&nbsp; July, however, boasted a traveling circus theme,&nbsp;&nbsp; a way for players to protest the lack&nbsp; of regular updates. As PCGamesN noted,&nbsp;&nbsp; one Discord mod reasoned players were all clowns&nbsp; for believing they d receive fresh content,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:38] so it was fitting to dress the part, too. To the delight of many, Rockstar did deliver&nbsp;&nbsp; a substantial update later in July, unleashing&nbsp; the Naturalist as an all-new Frontier Pursuit.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:50] This particular role focused on tracking&nbsp; Legendary Animals, as Naturalist players could&nbsp;&nbsp; work alongside Harriet Davenport to research and&nbsp; conserve the lives of rare animals. An alternate&nbsp;&nbsp; Naturalist path let users lend their services to&nbsp; big game hunter Gus Macmillan, who paid top-dollar&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:06] for rare animal pelts and could fashion unique&nbsp; clothing items from the retrieved skins. On&nbsp;&nbsp; top of seven Legendary Animals, the update s&nbsp; other supplemental add-ons included new skills&nbsp;&nbsp; for Naturalists, Free Roam Events, another&nbsp; Outlaw Pass, and asynchronous matchmaking. &nbsp;
[12:23] The Naturalist Role provided fun gameplay&nbsp; opportunities not afforded to the classes that&nbsp;&nbsp; came before. Its associated weapons and cosmetics&nbsp; received their fair share of praise, too. But&nbsp;&nbsp; the positivity injected into the community by the&nbsp; update in question wouldn t last for very long. &nbsp;
[12:47] Players regarded Rockstar s major release&nbsp; for Red Dead Online as nothing but a morsel,&nbsp;&nbsp; given the contents of the Bounty Hunter&nbsp; update that launched in December 2020.&nbsp;&nbsp; As opposed to phasing in a new playable class,&nbsp; the late 2020 update expanded upon the Bounty&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:02] Hunter Role by adding 10 prestigious bounty&nbsp; levels to the Role s existing progression&nbsp;&nbsp; model. These extra levels were combined with new&nbsp; cosmetics and higher-paying bounties to form the&nbsp;&nbsp; Prestigious Bounty Hunter License. Priced at 15&nbsp; Gold Bars, the Bounty Hunter unlocks cost over&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:17] half the price of the Moonshiner and Naturalist&nbsp; Roles, both of which featured more content. &nbsp; Users understandably took umbrage with the&nbsp; state of things, feelings exacerbated by&nbsp;&nbsp; the fourth premium Outlaw Pass only offering 30&nbsp; Gold Bars compared to the typical 40. Notably,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:34] additional 10 Gold Bars and 400 in-game dollars.&nbsp; The community accused Rockstar of employing this&nbsp;&nbsp; tactic to target people s fear of missing out.&nbsp; That the Outlaw Pass primarily contained filler&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:49] items and no weapon skins or outfit unlocks for&nbsp; Level 1 progression intensified the dismay. &nbsp; In short, Red Dead Online s answer to the battle&nbsp; pass had become underwhelming." And changes to&nbsp;&nbsp; gold payouts for the Daily Challenges made&nbsp; playing the game for free far less efficient&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:05] than in previous updates. Suffice it to&nbsp; say, some Red Dead regulars viewed the&nbsp;&nbsp; Bounty Hunter License as the last straw. Hope lingered in some respect, though,&nbsp;&nbsp; courtesy of a standalone Red Dead Online release&nbsp; for consoles and PC. The standalone hit digital&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:21] stores on the same day as the Bounty Hunter&nbsp; expansion for $5, a 75 percent discount that&nbsp;&nbsp; remained in place through February 2021. From the&nbsp; outside looking in, a dedicated Red Dead Online&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:33] platform separate from the story mode suggested&nbsp; the multiplayer suite still had life left in it.&nbsp;&nbsp; Yet as subsequent months wore on, doubt once more&nbsp; pervaded the game s slowly dwindling community. &nbsp;
[14:47] Red Dead Online spent the first half of 2021&nbsp; drifting through yet another content drought&nbsp;&nbsp; barring weekly challenges and small patches.&nbsp; As it had the previous year, the month of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:59] July bore fruit with the advent of Blood Money,&nbsp; an update centered on the Saint Denis locale.&nbsp;&nbsp; Built around multi-stage robbery missions, Blood&nbsp; Money tasked players with accepting jobs from&nbsp;&nbsp; crime boss Guido Martelli who needed gunslingers&nbsp; to acquire valuable currency known as Capitale. &nbsp;
[15:15] The currency originally came into existence as&nbsp; a unique exchange system for criminal business&nbsp;&nbsp; dealings. Thus, attempts to successfully retrieve&nbsp; Capitale presented players with lucrative criminal&nbsp;&nbsp; opportunities, which manifested as a new mission&nbsp; type Crimes. Objectives attached to Crimes ranged&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:33] from elaborate robberies and stagecoach holdups to&nbsp; kidnappings and debt collection. The player s job&nbsp;&nbsp; didn t end there either, as accumulating Capitale&nbsp; led to Opportunities, schemes devised by Martelli&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:45] to bring down a Senator hellbent on disrupting&nbsp; criminal operations in Saint Denis. Rockstar&nbsp;&nbsp; deployed the first of three Opportunities&nbsp; on July 13, with the second and third&nbsp;&nbsp; Opportunities arriving less than a month later. Despite Opportunities acting as the equivalent of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:01] GTA Online s Heists, opinions about the content&nbsp; from the community were divisive at best. One&nbsp;&nbsp; side of the aisle considered the missions a waste&nbsp; of time; the other enjoyed the storytelling and&nbsp;&nbsp; argued that, at the very least, Opportunities&nbsp; provided a great jumping-on point for newcomers.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:18] Above all else, veteran players wanted in-game&nbsp; luxuries to spend their growing riches on. PC&nbsp;&nbsp; modders solved the problem to a degree with&nbsp; the creation of purchasable property mods,&nbsp;&nbsp; but users across all platforms longed for more,&nbsp; much more than Rockstar was willing to produce. &nbsp;
[16:36] In December 2021, GTA Online received a massive&nbsp; update featuring new music from Dr. Dre,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:48] a story starring the music legend himself,&nbsp; and the return of GTA 5 protagonist Franklin&nbsp;&nbsp; Clinton. While GTA players debated whether such an&nbsp; expansion should ve launched as single-player DLC,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[17:00] Red Dead s online component received nothing&nbsp; in the way of a significant content drop.&nbsp;&nbsp; Rockstar s favoritism towards GTA admittedly&nbsp; made sense, given that a NetBet study from&nbsp;&nbsp; August 2021 estimated GTA Online s earnings&nbsp; totaled a whopping $2.5 million per day. &nbsp;
[17:18] Nevertheless, players expected Rockstar to&nbsp; set aside resources for Red Dead support,&nbsp;&nbsp; too. When it became evident the studio had&nbsp; no such plan in mind, the community started&nbsp;&nbsp; a Save Red Dead Online campaign in January&nbsp; 2022 with a hashtag that trended on Twitter.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[17:33] The outcry more or less went unanswered until&nbsp; Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive,&nbsp;&nbsp; told IGN in May that though he was aware of&nbsp; player frustrations, the future of content&nbsp;&nbsp;
[17:45] updates depended on Rockstar s decision-making. Unfortunately, the final decision the final blow&nbsp;&nbsp; came in July, when the studio revealed it had&nbsp; begun shifting resources to production for the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[17:57] next Grand Theft Auto game. Red Dead Online&nbsp; support would be relegated to seasonal events,&nbsp;&nbsp; expanding upon existing modes, and the addition&nbsp; of new Telegram Missions later in 2022, rather&nbsp;&nbsp;
[18:09] than delivering major themed content updates&nbsp; The news circulated mere days after Red Dead&nbsp;&nbsp; Online community members announced an in-game&nbsp; funeral to celebrate the one-year anniversary&nbsp;&nbsp; of the title s abandonment. It seemed active&nbsp; users had long spied the writing on the wall. &nbsp;
[18:24] Therein lies the tragedy of Red Dead Online:&nbsp; Players wanted a better game, campaigned for it,&nbsp;&nbsp; but had to accept far too early in its life cycle&nbsp; that middling developer support made even the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[18:36] simplest of requests an impossibility. Considering&nbsp; the departure of the franchise s lead writer,&nbsp;&nbsp; Dan Houser, in March 2020 and reports of&nbsp; a canceled remaster for the original game,&nbsp;&nbsp; fans can only hope a similar tragedy&nbsp; won t befall Red Dead proper.