Is Red Dead Redemption 2 the start of a Western game wave?

While we wait for Rockstar to figure out what it wants to do with Red Dead Redemption 2 in the future, it doesn’t hurt to speculate over whether or not this could be the beginning of a new trend towards releasing open-world Western genre games.

Unfortunately, unless Red Dead Redemption 2 become the next GTA Online, we don’t think it is going to happen and it has nothing to do with how successful RDR2 is or will be. Instead, it has everything to do with the problems publishers face when releasing a game like Red Dead Redemption 2.

You see, everything is a controversy now. It isn’t hard to cause a public furore over any and every conceivable issue. For companies like EA and the like, the threat of this is too much given the spread of properties they have.

Earnest and sincere portrayals

To be sure, RDR2’s treatment of the more sensitive aspects of the Western genre and the time period in which the game is ostensibly set is way better than most of us could ever want. It’s nothing like the GTA games. It is earnest and sincere, depicting people and events with an eye towards historical accuracy.

One area where this is present is in RDR2’s treatment of Native Americans. Still, even that is fraught with issues. And who can forget the uproar over YouTube user Shirakko and his video where he hogtied the braying suffragette from the game? That alone caused a controversy and it was completely outside of Rockstar’s control.

Studios averse to controversy

Rockstar probably gets a lot more slack than most, and that’s probably why RDR2’s tone is so different from its other games. They know when to bring satire and parody to the fore, and they know when to deliver a serious drama. Most developers don’t know how to walk this fine line and most publishers aren’t willing to throw a bunch of money behind a game that could become the controversial meme generator du jour.

That sucks, because there is so much cool stuff going on in RDR2 and we think the Western genre is one that can be reimagined for modern audiences without offending their sensibilities. It’s just that those sensibilities are so mysterious, varied, and potent that it is easy to understand why no one does it.

Plus, it isn’t like Westerners haven’t had their day. If you look at the genres of Hollywood films released during a certain period between the 1950 and 1970s, you’ll notice that Westerners dominated and overwhelmingly so. They haven’t changed a lot since then. Some concepts, like WestWorld, show us a new way to think about Westerns while games like RDR2 treat it with a lot of gravity and respect but also using a modern lens to interpret its tropes.

So, if we can’t expect more Western-style games, what hope do we have if we enjoyed RDR2?

Well, Rockstar is relying upon our love of the gameplay enough to compel us to join the online game. That could go on for forever. Plus, there’s the distant hope of getting some kind of single-player DLC. Outside of that, the outlook isn’t good.