Red Dead Redemption 2 Multiplayer- Will It Be More Like GTA Online Or Battle Royale Centric?

In this article, we've discussed how Red Dead Redemption 2 Multiplayer will work. Will it be like GTA Online or something like Battle Royale?

You know what people have talked more about than Trump, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and the World Cup 2018 in the last couple of years? Battle Royale in video games. That may be a hyperbole and not an actual fact but it certainly seems true with us getting Battle Royale games on a monthly bases.

Rockstar Games has always been more about singleplayer with their open-world environments and innovative narrative. The game design and the world itself in the singleplayer also have an unmatched quality. However, with the launch of GTA V, the emphasis was a little parted between the Campaign Mode and GTA Online.

Since then, almost 5 years and running, GTA Online has continued to receive content throughout its cycle that does not seem to end.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Multiplayer

GTA Online allows the player to do a lot of things in a multiplayer fashion – things that definitely do not resemble Battle Royale at all!

Instead, we had fun mini-games and activities like racing, bar hopping, raids, and more to carry out. This strategy has been crazy successful with GTA V being the fastest selling entertainment product in history. However, since then, the success of PUBG and Fortnite has changed the gaming industry for the worse with many clones springing up and even Call of Duty and Battlefield opting these modes in their newer entries.

Question is, will Rockstar get affected by this and change their formula a little bit to introduce the mechanics of Battle Royale in Red Dead Redemption 2? Well, there will be a Multiplayer Mode, that is for sure and we really do hope it will match GTA Online more than PUBG.

If GTA Online has told us one thing, it is that Rockstar cares about their fans, the community. They give back. That is not to say the promised singleplayer DLC for GTA V is still not here and to earn the free content and in-game items, you need to grind a lot and most people just go for the microtransactions. Overall, the formula worked, much better than the battle royale clones in the market right now.

What the Future Holds?

In a recent interview with Take-Two Interactive CEO, Strauss Zelnick tells us about the main plan financially regarding Red Dead Redemption 2 as he says:

“… monetization not our primary concern. Our interest is not games-as-a-service but engaging consumers with the best entertainment anyone makes… and naturally, the revenues and the profits will follow…”

All of these comments tell you that Rockstar is not the least bit affected by what the other studios are doing in the video game business. They care about the fans and they will provide entertainment that is all. A leak back in February hinted towards a Battle Royale mode though.

What made the leak a bit authentic was leaked images that matched the official screenshots quite a bit. Though they mentioned the Battle Royale mode, they also said that Red Dead Online would be like GTA Online with regular events, bounties, apartment system, and raids.

This puts things into a new perspective. Maybe Red Dead Redemption 2 will borrow some elements from the popular mode but that does not mean it will not retain the factors that made its multiplayer a success. It does not matter if we have a Battle Royale mode as long as we are getting content outside of it as well to suit all tastes and playstyles.

Zelnick again points out that though they might ‘choose to be derivative for some small portion of a game’ but they will certainly not release a ‘diluted version of Fortnite’ because it ‘would fail and will be an embarrassment for the brand’. Therefore, you can assume Red Dead Redemption 2 to be in safe hands.

Not only the story be of emphasis like every other previous Rockstar title, the success of GTA Online and the views of Zelnick shows that the multiplayer will be as entertaining as ever whether it chooses to borrow elements from Battle Royale games or not. Stay tuned for more information regarding the game in the coming weeks!

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Ali is a passionate RPG gamer. He believes that western RPGs still have a lot to learn from JRPGs. He is editor-in-chief at SegmentNext.com but that doesn't stop him from writing about his favorite video ...