With E3 around the corner the gaming world is abuzz with hype and rumors. Just like every year, the leaks have begun in advance, leaving fewer surprises in store for the actual expo, and some companies embraced this by revealing things in advance.
However, following a curious statement from Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, it seems we have more reason to be excited than previously thought.
In an investor briefing event held in New York City, Zelnick spoke much about the projections and future of Take-Two Interactive Software. As usual, these investor events don't hold much news interesting to gamers and fans since actual games, releases and announcements aren't discussed.
However, with the immense financial success of Red Dead Redemption 2, investors are certainly interested in TTWO maximizing the potential of the game. Releasing it on further platforms is the most direct approach, and one Rockstar has employed in the past.
When asked about the possibility of Red Dead Redemption 2 being launched on PC - using the term "layup" which refers to something being easy - Zelnick provided a concise answer.
"There is no downside to releasing the game on PC."
While this is a pretty typical diplomatic non-answer, examining it in context gives it a lot more weight. Let's look at the evidence.
Providing a statement like this may seem innocent regardless of E3 beginning soon since "Rockstar skips E3 all the time anyway". While this is true for the most part, and they don't like announcing entirely new games at major shows, Rockstar has used E3 to reveal new versions and ports of existing titles.
GTA 5's enhanced edition for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 was revealed at an E3 show.
This means that the PC port of Red Dead Redemption 2 being announced at, say, Microsoft's conference - which is shaping up to be substantial this year - is actually reasonably likely. When Rockstar has appeared at E3, they never held their own conference but piggybacked on a first party one, such as when the now-cancelled Agent was revealed during a Sony E3 conference.
Red Dead Redemption 2 eventually making the jump to PC is highly probable. It's one of the most anticipated ports and a guaranteed success. Rockstar has plenty of experience porting console titles to PC, since they've been doing it since the PS2 era.
It's also important to remember that one particularly convincing leak has all but confirmed that the eventual release of a PC port is inevitable. Video footage of a graphics option menu was leaked online some time ago, which would qualify as one of the most elaborate fakes in the history of video game leaks if it turns out to be a dud.
There has also been several instances of a PC version of the game listed in the online portfolios and CVs of former Rockstar employees, who all very quickly removed these references after the news broke. One time may have been an accident, but multiple occurrences is suspicious.
Considering there was a year between the release of GTA 5 and its enhanced version, it would make sense for the same one year gap to apply to Red Dead Redemption 2, which would make this E3 the best and only chance to give the big announcement.
We're hopeful that the coming days will hold some explosive Red Dead Redemption 2 news.
