Take-Two CEO Says Red Dead Redemption Port Pricing Is 'Commercially Accurate'

Gamernyc78

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Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive unveiled what many believed would be a remaster/remake of Red Dead Redemption earlier today, although it appears early rumors may have hyped things up a lot more than it needed to be. Instead, it was revealed that the original Red Dead Redemption is simply being ported to both PS4 and Nintendo Switch for the first time, as the PS4 isn't backwards compatible with PS3 titles and the game has never released on a Nintendo console prior

It's an announcement that's been catching an awful lot of heat from Red Dead Redemption fans, and not just because they're disappointed about the fact it's not a full blown remaster. The biggest point of contention is the asking price, as the port of the game will be sold for $49.99/£39.99 when it launches later this month, which is pretty steep considering it's a straight port with no graphical upgrades, and you can buy pre-owned copies on Xbox 360 for a fraction of the price.

Take-Two has attempted to justify the price by explaining that the game's Undead Nightmare DLC and several pieces of content from the Game of the Year Edition are being included, though fans have also been keen to point out that the ports are also stripping out the multiplayer, which was a big part of the original game's charm. A lot of players are also pretty irritated that Red Dead Redemption is skipping PC yet again despite being 13 years old at this point.

Like with most big gaming controversies, fans have been making their anger using the usual social media platforms. There are several threads on the game's subreddit posted by players urging others to boycott the game and emulate the Xbox 360 version on PC instead, with almost everyone else stating that they're just going to wait for a sale and not buy day one. The port's official announcement trailer on YouTube has also been bombarded with dislikes and negative comments from angry Rockstar fans.


At the time of writing, the dislike ratio is pretty hefty, sitting at 57k dislikes to 28k likes. You'll also find a whole bunch of comments from players saying things like Rockstar "never fails to disappoint" and that it's impressive that the developer has somehow managed to turn one of the easiest wins into yet another controversy. Between this and the recent GTA: The Trilogy debalcle from a couple of years ago, it's difficult to see Rockstar winning its fans' trust back any time soon.
 

anonpuffs

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Take 2 got the message loud and clear: people will buy lazy ports no matter how bad the quality. See what happened with the gta "remaster" - it was downvoted like crazy and it still sold millions.
 

John Elden Ring

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After today’s Take-Two earnings call, IGN asked CEO Strauss Zelnick why they priced the newly announced port the way they did, especially given the backwards compatibility situation for Xbox.

“That's just what we believe is the commercially accurate price for it,” Zelnick responded.

Take-Two’s EVP of Finance, Hannah Sage, also pointed out that the port isn’t just the Red Dead base game, but also Undead Nightmare. When asked if Undead Nightmare was the reason for its $50 price, Zelnick said the add-on “was a great standalone game in its own right when it was originally released, so we feel like it's a great bundle for the first time, and certainly a great value for consumers.”

IGN did ask him about a potential PC release, but Zelnick left it vague, saying he leaves game release announcements up to the developers. Pressed further about the logic behind ports vs. remasters vs. remakes, Zelnick said:

It depends on the vision that the creative teams have for a title, and in the absence of having a powerful vision, for something that we would do with a title, we might bring it in its original form, we've done that, and in certain instances we might remaster or remake, so it really depends on the title and how the label feels about it, the platform, and what we think the opportunity is for consumers.



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Bryank75

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I still expect a 60fps patch at the very least for PS5.

Would be nice if they did more but I assume a 60fps patch is doable.
 

Nimrota

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The sad thing is I'm sure they genuinely believe what they said and it isn't just PR. An almost 15 year old game plus its DLC going for almost the same price as Baldur's Gate 3, and they think that's a fair deal to the consumer.
 

Systemshock2023

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I remember when Nintendo packaged a Mario 64 ROM alongside other games and had the nerve to sell it for limited time only. Rockstar is pro consumer compared to them. 50 USD for a brand new game is a steal for the Nintendo fanbase. Also a 7th gen souped up game to boot so might as well be the most realistic looking game on the system.
 
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Gamernyc78

Gamernyc78

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This was part of this thread...


Didnt make seperate thread because it was still talking about Red Dead bs.
 

Zzero

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People who don't like it are free to hunt down the PS3 version or just not play.
 

flaccidsnake

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$50 would've been defensible for an "HD Remaster" type of release. What they're doing really looks like a straight up port from 2010, and they're skipping all the relevant platforms in 2023.
 
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