After all this time, the first sign that a big marketing push for Red Dead Redemption 2 is underway has appeared.
Fans have sighted a huge collection of posters going up in New York advertising the game. This is likely the first step in a much larger, international publicity campaign mirroring that of past releases.
Sighted in Lower Manhattan, New York City, near Rockstar's local offices, was a set of posters set up near one another. First reported by Tom Caswell and Instagram user Tary_n, the posters depict individual character art for John Marston, Dutch van der Linde, Sadie Adler and Charles Smith, as well as a large key art poster and a separate posted with the tagline "Outlaws for Life".
While none of these characters are new, the artwork used to depict them hasn't been seen before in other marketing material. The posters reaffirm the October 26 release date, and if it got printed on posters going up in such a prominent location, you can bet that that's when the game will be launched.
The key art poster showing the drawing of Arthur Morgan which also adorns the game's box is displayed higher up than the rest and has its own illumination, setting it apart from the other posters. It towers almost like a marker in an open world game, beckoning fans to visit it to see the other displays.
In a curious and almost certainly deliberate twist of fate, the large posters emblazoned with "Outlaws for Life" happens to be prominently displayed on a bank building. Whoever came up with that deserves a promotion, though we have the slightest hunch that the bank's employees may not be too cheery about the situation.
This was enough to ignite the fandom, many of whom are already hoping for some means to acquire character art posters in the future. This is also likely an indication of the beginning of Red Dead Redemption 2's marketing in earnest, which has been absent so far.
Rockstar Games previous high-profile release, Grand Theft Auto 5, allegedly had half of its $265 million budget dedicated to marketing, which manifested in the form of huge murals, liveries on the sides of trams, posters across multiple countries and widespread online advertising. Red Dead Redemption 2, which is intended to be publisher Take-Two's flagship release of the year, will likely get no less attention.
Hopefully the activation of the marketing engine doesn't only mean ads, but also more trailers, screenshots and gameplay details.
