Red Dead Redemption 2 fans have, until now, had some cause to be concerned about how the game's single player campaign will be treated.
GTA Online has been a spectacular success for Rockstar Games and its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, and many believe that success has come at the expense of single player expansions for Grand Theft Auto V. Fans are worried that a similar focus on the online component of Red Dead Redemption 2, Red Dead Online, might happen from the outset.
However, thanks to an interview that Game Informer conducted with a high ranking Rockstar Games developer, we can put any such concerns to rest.
Though the interview itself was mostly about the evolution and explosive success of GTA Online, a question arose about why GTA 5 never got single player DLC.
This fact, that over the course of four years since launch, no new content has been added to the game's solo campaign, has left many fans worried that Red Dead Redemption 2 might be even heavier on the multiplayer side, with resources accordingly diverted away from the single player component.
Director of design Imran Sarwar revealed that GTA Online's success didn't directly cause the cancellation of the story DLC (we say cancellation because it was announced at one point), but rather the heavy load the company was under.
Between developing Grand Theft Auto 5, developing an enhanced version of GTA 5 for more platforms, developing Red Dead Redemption 2 and also working on those other two unannounced projects we know exist, single player DLC just wasn't something that fit into the pipeline.
That said, if we look at this statement in light of the huge amounts of cash that GTA Online is raking in, as well as the serious post-launch attention it has been receiving content-wise, it isn't hard to worry about what kind of a future this might mean for other Rockstar titles - and this is where the statement relevant to Red Dead Redemption 2 comes into the picture.
We would love to do more single-player add-ons for games in the future. As a company, we love single-player more than anything, and believe in it absolutely – for storytelling and a sense of immersion in a world, multiplayer games don’t rival single-player games.
This statement absolutely rings true considering Rockstar's track record, with GTA 5 being the only GTA title with a multiplayer mode worth mentioning, and few other Rockstar releases having particularly memorable multiplayer modes. While many which did have some kind of multiplayer were finely crafted and worth praise, all of their titles that have achieved the status of being a classic did so on the merit of their single player content and world.
Red Dead Redemption was no exception. Even though it had a highly enjoyable multiplayer mode with plenty of activities - it even got a DLC at one point - the game achieved fame and popularity due the legendary storyline of John Marston and other memorable characters players encountered when playing through the story. Gameplay is also a major element of that fame, though that is largely the same in the two modes.
One of the earliest Red Dead Redemption 2 reveals what that the game will have a multiplayer mode similar to GTA Online. The Red Dead Online domain name was registered by Rockstar Games as well, soon after the game's announcement.
What (little) we've seen so far of the game - the two trailers and the one batch of screenshots - have all focused on the game's single player mode, with the most recent trailer giving several clues to the actual storyline of the game, which is a major draw for fans. With all the connections to the previous game, to which this will act as a prequel, Rockstar has already set the tone - and thus, the expectations.
GTA Online aside, GTA 5 is still hugely praised for its single player campaign, with a vast array of memorable characters, huge number of activities, three protagonists and an extremely detailed world. So Rockstar's track record of legendary single player content has never been broken, and everyone will expecting something of the same calibre for Red Dead Redemption 2, as a minimum.
Sarwar's statement should go far in terms of dissipating many of the concerns fans have for the upcoming title. If all goes well, Red Dead Redemption 2 will launch with a strong single player campaign in Spring 2018.
