Online retailers just can't keep the lid on upcoming releases, can they? While today's biggest leak-related news is how Walmart basically outed all of E3 early, it isn't the only gaming-related product outed before its time. It seems that Red Dead Redemption 2 will be getting its own art book soon after release.
A product listing for a book called The Art of Red Dead Redemption 2 went up on Amazon a few days ago complete with pricing, a release date and a detailed description. The book's full price is indicated to be $35.00, but was discounted (somehow, already) to $27.30. The book's release date was pegged for the 30th of October, putting it just 4 days after the game's launch.
The product page listed Rockstar Games as one of the authors and a rather wordy description regarding the book was also posted, though no image of the cover or contents were shown. The product description frequently made note of how this is a first-time venture for a "secretive" company like Rockstar and indicated that the book would include concept art, storyboards and other development assets not seen in the game itself.
Whoever wrote that description isn't far off.
For all the popularity basically all Rockstar titles garner, none of them have this sort of tie-in media. Releasing art books for high-profile AAA games has become more and more common, though in most cases said artbooks are restricted to the collector's editions of said games (since no special editions have been revealed for Red Dead Redemption 2, we know not whether this, or any other, art book will be included in any of them).
One curiosity about the book and the description is that the game's title it always written as "Red Dead Redemption II" with Roman numerals, even though all official marketing material so far used the number 2. Usually typefaces and enumeration is kept consistent across the game and all related media for marketing reasons, however considering that the listing went up early - and the description has since been removed - it likely will be edited by the time the book is officially announced.
While quickly-removed product pages which allegedly leak products are dubious sources of information, it's important to keep in mind that the Grand Theft Auto V: Premium Online Edition was correctly leaked on Amazon. Additionally, even though the product description was removed, instead of being left blank it now holds a short text stating that further information will be revealed about the book as the release date draws closer, so its existence is not being denied.
Based on the three trailers and various screenshots Red Dead Redemption 2 is going to be one good looking game, and video game concept art is almost universally beautiful, so we're extremely on-board with the idea of an art book. I'm hoping for a large-sized coffee table book with big, high-quality glossy prints.
