We always knew that Rockstar would be releasing Red Dead Redemption 2
However, by the time Red Dead Redemption 2 hits consoles next year, it will have been over seven years since the launch of Red Dead Redemption back in 2010. For any game that’s a pretty long time when it comes to releasing a sequel in a franchise in an industry where sequels are usually churned out every few years.
We don’t know when exactly Rockstar began working on Red Dead Redemption 2, but what we do know is that the game has been in active development since at least 2014. Sounder Designer Joe Cavers posted his portfolio online which showed that he had been working on Red Dead Redemption 2 for the last two years. Interestingly however, it looks like that little snippet of information has since been deleted from his portfolio.
It’s safe to assume that Rockstar had been working on Red Dead Redemption 2 long before 2014, as there are several stages which came before sound development in game development such as coming up with concepts and laying the initial foundations. It looks likely though that active development on the game could have begun in 2014, giving three years of full development before the game’s release next year.
Development on Grand Theft Auto V began in 2009, one year after the release of Grand Theft Auto IV. That gave Rockstar four years to actively develop the game before releasing it on Xbox 360 and PS3 in September 2013. Of course, development on GTA V would have taken longer as Rockstar were already planning on releasing the game to PS4 and Xbox One when they launched in 2014 before porting the game to PC.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is only being developed for current-gen consoles on the other hand, so it’s more than plausible that it would need a slightly shorter active development schedule, especially given that Rockstar will be more comfortable with the latest hardware.
Red Dead Redemption 2 will be releasing on PS4 and Xbox in Fall 2017.