Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 is truly a tour de force of gaming. It presents an insanely detailed Wild West world to get lost in, one full of sidequests, distractions, and beautiful scenery to get sidetracked by. The level of detail in the environments is staggering; it’s clear Rockstar put a whole bunch of effort into creating the sandbox environment. With that in mind, one question is on many gamers’ minds, and that’s this: will Rockstar create an RDR2 PS5 upgrade?
It stands to reason that something like this should be on the cards. A Red Dead Redemption 2 PS5 upgrade makes a lot of sense. After all, the PS5 is an incredibly powerful machine; its solid state drive would make for an amazing experience playing RDR2, as environments would load instantly and the action would be buttery-smooth. What, though, is the official word from Rockstar? Is there going to be an RDR2 PS5 upgrade anytime soon?
Rockstar hasn’t announced anything
Unfortunately, the first spanner in the works for those hoping for a Red Dead Redemption 2 PS5 upgrade is this: Rockstar hasn’t made any official announcement regarding anything of the sort. This means that an RDR2 PS5 upgrade probably isn’t on the cards right now, at least not in an official capacity. There’s always a good chance Rockstar could announce something in future; after all, other games are getting upgrades from PS4 to PS5 left, right, and centre. Right now, though, there’s no official PS5 upgrade for the cowboy sandbox coming.
You can play Red Dead Redemption on PS5
Even without a tangible RDR2 PS5 upgrade, you can still play Rockstar’s open-world masterpiece on your PS5. It’s fully backwards compatible, so you can just pop your PS4 disc into your console (or fire up your downloaded version) and it’ll work just fine. Of course, you won’t be able to take advantage of any of the new console’s features (barring the faster loading times), but Red Dead Redemption 2 is still a beautiful and enjoyable game, even in its PS4 incarnation. If you’ve got an old copy of RDR2 lying around, fire it up on PS5; you might be surprised!
A PS5 version of RDR2 might be announced soon
While it’s certainly true that Red Dead Redemption 2 hasn’t been announced for PS5 just yet, there’s good evidence to suggest it might be. Grand Theft Auto V is getting a native PS5 version soon, complete with visual and performance improvements. It’s definitely true that GTA V is Rockstar’s best-performing game, mostly thanks to the online component, so it makes commercial sense for the studio to release its game for new consoles. However, Red Dead Redemption 2 is no slouch in the sales department either, and there will be plenty of gamers clamouring to try it out on the new machine.
The PC version of Red Dead Redemption 2 is great
If you’ve got a beefy enough PC, the Red Dead Redemption 2 PC port gives a glimpse of what a PS5 version might look like. The frame rate is uncapped, so no matter what kind of PC you’ve got, there’s a good chance RDR2 will be a match for it. Of course, you’re going to need some serious hardware if you want to play at RDR2’s pace. Even the best graphics cards around right now can barely break 100fps on ultra at 1440p, so you won’t be able to get by with even a moderately well-specced PC. You can always turn settings down, though, so less powerful machines should still be able to run the game.
Red Dead Redemption 2 isn’t as profitable as GTA V
Even though RDR2 is, as we’ve established, still a profitable endeavour for Rockstar, the money it’s made pales in comparison to the profits garnered by its more modern sibling. Grand Theft Auto V is a staggering money generator for Rockstar, with reports suggesting the game is netting the company a remarkable $2.5 million per day. While Red Dead Online is still profitable for the company, it’s nowhere near as much of a money-spinner as GTA V, which might be one of the reasons Rockstar isn’t committing to a native PS5 port.
We could get RDR3 at some point
If an interview with Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick is to be believed, then Red Dead Redemption 3 could be on the horizon, and that game would almost certainly be released for the PS5. Naturally, if that game does see the light of day, then the company would almost certainly want to release Red Dead Redemption 2 for the PS5 as well, so that anyone who isn’t up to date with the story can catch up. If RDR2 is to come to PS5, it’ll probably be alongside a potential sequel (or prequel, if Rockstar follows the same logic as it did with RDR2).
Nothing’s changing anytime soon
The unfortunate takeaway from what we know about Red Dead Redemption 2 so far is that there isn’t likely to be a PS5 upgrade anytime soon. Rockstar is focused on supporting GTA V and Red Dead Online, and it probably hasn’t thought much about bringing its cowboy epic to PS5 (or to any other next-gen platforms, for that matter). We’ll just have to wait and see what Rockstar has on the horizon for its game. Until then, you can still play RDR2 on PS5; you just have to settle for the PS4 version, which is just a sliver of what the game might be on the new console.
My PS4 disc doesn’t work on my PS5…