The folks behind 'Grand Theft Auto' are teasing a new 'Red Dead Redemption' game
The company that makes the ridiculously popular "Grand Theft Auto" video game series isn't known for pumping out blockbuster after blockbuster. Instead, the m.o. of Rockstar Games is to proceed carefully, focus on a small handful of huge properties, and make them into smash hits.
Such is the case with 2010's "Red Dead Redemption." As of last summer, the game had sold over 14 million copies. It's a massively successful third-person action game in a massive open world (the American frontier as it modernized across the 19th century).
Fans have been craving a sequel for years - six years, in fact. And it looks like those fans are about to get their wish. Rockstar Games' Twitter account posted the following image on Monday morning:
And that's not the first tease that Rockstar has issued in the characteristic blood red color that's a signature of the series' art style.
Over the weekend, on Sunday morning (also at 9 a.m. ET, like the image above), Rockstar tweeted an image of its logo in the same color scheme with a faded outline:
But what could it mean?
It's pretty clear now that both teases point to news about a new "Red Dead" project in the near future. And we're betting that game announcement is a (long-awaited) sequel to "Red Dead Redemption." Beyond the red Rockstar logo and slightly faded outline around it - it's red! and it's faded/worn, just like the old west! - Rockstar's not giving us much to go on.
But we do have a working knowledge of recent leaks and historical precedent to helps us out.
First and most prominently, an image of a map (below) made the rounds back in April that was supposedly from "Red Dead Redemption 2"; TechRadar says it confirmed the map as tied to a "Red Dead" sequel. Based on information in that leak, it looks like the sequel to "Red Dead Redemption" may be a prequel story.
So, what else is pointing to a new "Red Dead" game being in the works? The sales history of "Red Dead Redemption" certainly doesn't hurt: over 14 million copies sold as of August 2015.
And that's before taking into account Rockstar's more recent history with the game - it just recently got added to the Xbox One through backwards compatibility. That's no small feat: Work has to be done by both Rockstar and Microsoft to get that game up and running on the Xbox One. It's almost like, I don't know, Rockstar is trying to prime fans of the first game to get excited for a sequel. Imagine that!
Rockstar Games hasn't responded to a request for comment on the tease. It's not clear when we'll learn more, but we'd expect to hear something sooner than later.