We're at that special time of year folks: the time for Rockstar to make a total fool of themselves and confuse everyone as to why they're considered the best-in-class to this very day. Because we've all respected the work of Rockstar at some point, have we not? The spectacular open worlds, genre defining systems, unforgettable narrative and stories- what isn't there to love about the guys? How about everything they do between their landmark releases? Like letting Bully die or squeezing all the life out of the online services or cutting of Red Dead Online after hardly a single year of support or... That accursed trilogy collection... (The less said about that the better) And what have they done this time? Well they've announced their new Red Dead Redemption game, of course! And it's... it's... a re-release of Red Dead Redemption 1... for the Switch... and PS4...
Now first of all, I was pretty damn sure we had been told for years that a port of the original Red Dead Redemption was nigh-on impossible. We were fed every excuse under the sun, from spaghetti code making it a landmine to work with to the team realising that the amount of work which would have had to be done on the game would warrant a full remake. Which is probably why the full remake rumours began. The only way Modern Xbox's could play it was by literally running an Xbox 360 emulator and pushing the Red Dead software through that! Apparently the work of copying that same game and pasting it on the actual storefront would have made the entire Xbox infrastructure implode. But it would seem that Rockstar has used it's vast powers to overcome that little pitiful and these new powers they've dedicated solely to evil.
The Switch? The Nintendo Switch? The console that struggles to keep up with the Xbox One and thus have never had the experience of a Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead game? The very first game that Rockstar wanted to feed to the Nintendo ecosystem is 2008's Red Dead Redemption? How about a damn port of Chinatown Wars ya cheapskates! The Switch could probably run a weaker version of Grand Theft Auto 5 if pressed- the very least that Rockstar could have done is give the thing a slight graphical remaster- you know, to polish it up for the new generation of gamers who will be coming to this game for the very first time. And that criticism lasts for both consoles, because Rockstar didn't even bother touch-up the PS4 port either!
Oh, and while we're on that topic... PS4? Excuse me? What year is it? No I'm serious, what year are we living in that a PS4 port is acceptable? The PlayStation 5 has just recently entered the sort of supply numbers to be considered real- same with the Series X, so we really should be past the point of past generational ports. Heck, at the very least it should be available on PS5! I mean... is it even going to be backwards compatible? Is there literally any reason whatsoever that a PlayStation 4 port can't be stretched to 5 as well? Is it anymore complicated than ticking a box and seeing if it passes the PlayStation QA check? I can't imagine that check is very stringent by itself, considering that Cyberpunk 2077 managed to make it.
But what if I told you that's all the small fries? The little middle-of-the-road inconveniences between learning of this port and learning the big issue? And what issue is that? Oh, I don't know- how about the fact that this is a $50 game? I almost choked upon hearing that at first, not just for it's insanity but because of how painfully typical that is for modern games- especially for modern Rockstar. Theirs is a company that makes over a billion a year, a surer paycheck than most big budget modern movie studios can expect, for they at least have to commit to some remote risk. All Rockstar needs to do is roll out a couple of months work on one or two GTA Online updates and they're greeted to a ludicrous revenue stream. And rather than take advantage of that to pursue passion projects- Rockstar reaches for even more.
I cannot overstate how shameful this is without reiterating what I've already said for effect, but it bares repeating. This is a port of a game from 2008 with absolutely zero graphical enhancements whatsoever. They didn't bump up the resolution, didn't go about fixing bugs, all the team did was attach Undead Nightmare to the package and call it fully on par with a modern game. Of course, in the modern age that does mean people will be playing this ancient game on modern screens, meaning that Red Dead is likely to look worse than it did back in the day, and yet is still getting the full price treatment. By any and all laws of commerce this is a throbbing joke that shouldn't even be considered by the industry- but it's Rockstar so we let them get away with it for the sake of prestige? Screw that!
Now of course, with the modern age of consumer-distributor relationships being open as they are, the absolute charisma vacuum known as the Take2 CEO decided to slither out from under the slimy rock he squats under to spit venom out into the wild. Strauss Zelnick, presumably between auditions to star as the vaguely European bad guy in a Die Hard rip-off movie, gave us his two cents on the pricing. According to him this is a "Commercially accurate price", boasting that the package comes with 'Undead Nightmare', a complete game in it's own right, so in actuality consumers are getting some sort of 'deal'. If there is ever a situation that perfectly fits that bizarrely Rockwell-esque folksy analogy of "Don't piss in a bottle and call it Granny's Peach Tea"; this is it!
By some insane coincidence the very day that this news was released me and my dad recently picked up a copy of Red Dead Redemption 1 for his Xbox 360, second hand but in good condition. This is a copy of Red Dead Redemption which I can bring to my Xbox One and my Series X and play it on both to the exact same standard as these low-effort ports. That cost me £8.00, and honestly that felt like a bit too much in the moment. If this isn't a shining beacon for why backwards compatibility needs to become more commonplace than I'm sorry but you're just not paying attention. The less control we offer up to vampire scum like Zelnick, the better it'll be for all of us. And even though I know it's going to sell, I have to plead anyway: please don't reward this behaviour; let Rockstar management know they're not worth anymore than the spit they regard us with.
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