Will ‘Red Dead Online’ release this week or will it be delayed?

By Georgina Torbet November 24, 2018

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Updated 11/25/18 to reflect that the image found was from an intro sequence, not a trailer.

Red Dead Redemption 2 continues its reign as one of the best selling games of the year, as well as one of the best reviewed. Fans have been waiting impatiently for the release of the online multiplayer mode, called Red Dead Online, which is supposed to be opening in beta mode in November. However, the lack of announcement of a date for the beta release means that some are skeptical whether the multiplayer mode will actually be made available this month.

The multiplayer mode was announced as a large free expansion that would be made available to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players, and would be playable either alone or as part of a party. A trailer for the mode was expected to drop to give players a first look at the action, based on an image that was found by snooping around Rockstar’s website which appeared to be a still from an intro sequence according to rockstarintel.com. Other tidbits found in the game’s companion app were that Red Dead Online will feature anniversary modes, which are probably similar to Grand Theft Auto Online’s player-versus-player challenges, and that private sessions and seamless PvE will be possible.

Although developers Rockstar Games haven’t given a beta release date yet, they also haven’t officially announced a delay to the multiplayer mode. So it isn’t yet clear whether the mode will be arriving in the next week or not. It could be that Rockstar hasn’t shared an announcement because of the Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday sales, which have been dominating the news and the attention of many technology fans and gamers.

Another theory is that because the game has sold so well, being the second best-selling game of the year so far despite its late release date, the sheer number of players wanting to join the beta has required Rockstar to iron out server issues ahead of time before allowing players in.

More specific details about Red Dead Online were uncovered by the site RockstarIntel and suggest that the first mission will be jailbreak-themed and that once you complete an online mission, you’ll get an award image which will appear on your social club.

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Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…

Gaming

Red Dead Redemption is coming to Nintendo Switch and PS4 this month

red dead redemption switch ps4 release date key art

The original Red Dead Redemption is coming to two new platforms, PS4 and Nintendo Switch, later this month. It'll retail for $50 on both platforms.
Red Dead Redemption and Undead Nightmare Coming to Switch and PS4
Rockstar Games' open-world western game first launched in 2010 for Xbox 360 and PS3. It was critically acclaimed and a smash sales hit, creating a new franchise for Rockstar that could stand alongside the likes of Grand Theft Auto. It received a sequel, Red Dead Redemption 2, in 2019, but the original Red Dead Redemption remained stuck on older platforms outside of backward compatibility support on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
That's why fans got excited when a rating for the game from the Game Rating and Administration Committee of Korea popped up. We've now learned that this rating is for new Nintendo Switch and PS4 ports of Red Dead Redemption by Double Eleven Studios. Red Dead Redemption will release across both of those platforms digitally on August 17, with a physical launch to follow on October 13.

It will cost $50 and includes the base campaign as well as the zombie-infested Undead Nightmare expansion; the Red Dead Online multiplayer is not included. This is the first time Red Dead Redemption will ever be on a Nintendo system, although it doesn't look like the port will have much in the way of Switch-exclusive features. That said, a press release does reveal that this will be the first version of the game to include Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese localizations.
Red Dead Redemption comes out on PS4 and Nintendo Switch on August 17.

Gaming

Rockstar Games’ co-founder just formed an ‘absurd’ new studio

A man drives away in a boat with stolen money in Grand Theft Auto 5 art.

Dan Houser, a co-founder of Rockstar Games and one of the people behind the creation of series like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, has unveiled his new studio, Absurd Ventures.

Dan Houser was a stalwart figure at Rockstar Games since its founding and had a hand in the creative aspects of pretty much every game in the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series, along with other titles like Bully and Max Payne 3. Following an "extended break" following the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, as well as some controversy surrounding some reported issues with the game's creative development, Rockstar Games' parent company Take-Two Interactive announced that Houser had left the company in early 2020. He's had a relatively low-profile since then outside of serving on the board of a blockchain company, but now looks to be fully invested in Absurd Ventures, a company he technically founded in 2021.
Absurd Ventures is finally being revealed more publicly now, and Houser did so with an intentionally absurd announcement trailer and website with the tagline "Storytelling, Philanthropy, Ultraviolence." According to a tweet by Geoff Keighley, the actual main goal of Absurd Ventures is "building narrative worlds, creating characters, and writing stories for a diverse variety of genres, without regard to medium, to be produced for live-action and animation, video games and other interactive content, books, graphic novels, and scripted podcasts."
Absurd Ventures
It seems like Houser wants to make a creative think tank that can craft ideas that are then realized in a variety of creative mediums. It doesn't seem quite like any other game developer or movie studio out there, so it will be very interesting to see what the minds at Absurd Ventures are eventually able to come up with.

Gaming

How to get the Eclipse 50-car garage in GTA Online

GTA Online two cars driving.

For years, players have been limited in how many cars they were able to store and showcase in their garages in GTA Online. After dozens of updates introduced a host of new properties, vehicles, weapons, and other features, Rockstar has finally given the players a larger garage to show off their collection. This new garage, the Eclipse Blvd 50-car garage, is a massive, five-story-tall garage that is, as you can guess, located on the pristine Eclipse Blvd. However, just having the cash and knowing where this swanky garage is isn't quite enough to actually purchase it. GTA Online has a host of ways to buy properties and items, so here's how you can become the proud owner of the Eclipse Blvd 50-car garage.
How to buy the Eclipse Blvd 50-car garage

Before getting into the actual process of purchasing the Eclipse Blvd 50-car garage, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that there are no requirements in terms of progression, level, or anything else of that sort that you need to meet before you have the option to buy it. The bad news, which is the case with all properties in GTA Online is that it is expensive. In this case, you will need to make sure you have a healthy bank account with at least $2,740,000 ready to drop. Once you've got the cash, here's how to buy your new garage.