Rockstar Games are well known for their little Easter eggs and references that they dot around their massive open worlds that many of you will miss as you explore, and some you may see but not understand or appreciate their relevance – that certainly happened to me. In Red Dead Redemption II, I bought the Cattleman Revolver; however, I didn’t pick up on Rockstar’s dig upon itself regarding the overtime that had cast a dark cloud over Read Dead Redemption II‘s release.
A sharp-eyed player noticed the description of the Cattleman Revolver in the gunsmith catalogue and its hint towards overtime and Red Dead Redemption II’s own development:
“It is made by skilled labourers who work tireless hours each week and on the weekends for little pay in order to bring you the finest revolver in the field today.”
That’s not all, though: The sidearm “is manufactured at a factory we own and control in Worcester Mass.” This may not seem like too much to begin with; however, apparently Worcester is a city that lies just outside of Boston in the US. Rockstar’s New England studio is located in Andover and is less than an hour away from Worcester, and this is perhaps the second hint in the description that Rockstar are indeed talking about themselves.
You never know, this could all be a huge coincidence. Admittedly, it seems unlikely that these gun descriptions were written and put into the game after the overtime issues came to light. Yet these problems within Rockstar and the gaming industry as a whole are not new, and this could be our first glimpse that something was wrong as there’s always a meaning and reason behind everything that Rockstar does.
Rockstar shouldn’t be solely to blame for overworking and ‘crunch’; as mentioned it’s an all-round problem with the games industry, but let’s hope this is the first step towards a positive conclusion for the games we love.