Zelnick says Red Dead Online wasn't a missed opportunity despite years without updates
Take-Two's CEO is out here defending Red Dead Online
So Strauss Zelnick decided to push back on the whole "Red Dead Online was a missed opportunity" narrative this week. For anyone who's been living under a rock, RDO basically went on life support a couple years ago — no meaningful updates while GTA Online keeps getting new content drops. But according to the man in charge, RDO was a success by all accounts.
Look, I love Red Dead Redemption 2 as much as anyone. The game hit some massive sales milestone (which honestly isn't surprising given how that game just keeps selling), but calling RDO a success when you compare it to what GTA Online became? That's a stretch. GTAO got heists, businesses, clubs, constant seasonal updates. RDO got... what, a handful of roles and then radio silence?
It's hard not to feel like Rockstar put all their chips on GTA Online and left the cowboys out to dry.
I get that from a business perspective, Zelnick has to spin things positively. You don't become CEO by saying "yeah we dropped the ball on that one." But as fans who actually played RDO and watched the community dwindle, it definitely feels like there was way more potential there that just never got tapped.
The thing that worries me is what this means going forward. If this is how they treat a multiplayer mode attached to one of the best-selling games ever, what does that tell us about their long-term support philosophy? Are we going to see the same pattern repeat with whatever comes next?
RDR2's sales numbers are genuinely impressive though, not gonna lie. That game has legs.
Do you think Red Dead Online was genuinely a success, or is Zelnick just doing corporate damage control?
Source: Eurogamer (GTA keyword) · Curated content.
Success? Man, I wish my nightclub safe generated that kind of "success." GTA Online's economy works because there's always a new grind loop — MC businesses, cayo perico on cooldown, nightclub passive income stacking while you run heists. RDO had what, five specialist roles and then nothing? No new revenue streams means no reason for players to log in, which means no shark card sales, which means Rockstar stops investing. It's a self-fulfilling cycle. Zelnick can call it whatever he wants, but the profit-per-hour comparison between GTAO and RDO isn't even close. You don't abandon a monetization machine that prints money unless the ROI was already dead.
Man, just look at what GTA Online built over the years. LS Customs alone kept half the playerbase hooked for a decade. We got engine swaps, full body kits, drift setups, the whole tuner DLC, Benny's garage work... that's why people kept coming back. RDO had horses. Cool horses, sure, but you can't slap a turbo and widebody on a Mustang and call it a day like we can in Los Santos.
Zelnick's talking sales numbers, not community longevity. Two different things entirely.