Red Dead Redemption 2 was released in 2018, and Red Dead Online emerged a few months later, in 2019. As the follow-up title to 2010’s Red Dead Redemption, ‘RDR2’ was one of the most highly-anticipated games in the history of the industry. When Red Dead Online was launched, it gave players the ability to explore a vast wilderness with their friends, giving a fresh angle to an already incredible game. Today, we’re here to answer a question that many people ask: is Red Dead Online cross-platform?
Unfortunately, while Red Dead Online enjoyed a remarkably positive launch, it ultimately subsided into disappointment for millions of fans. By 2022, the online platform was abandoned, with Rockstar Games, the developer, almost refusing to release any meaningful content for the game. A few expansions were launched over the years, but with them all out of the way, Red Dead Online quickly became a relatively empty place to explore.
With that in mind, we’re asking, is Red Dead Online crossplay, and if it is, what’s the state of the multiplayer scene today?
Image Credit: Rockstar Games
In May 2022, a campaign emerged online under the moniker, #SaveRedDeadOnline. It was a community-driven campaign that implored Rockstar Games to, quite literally, save Red Dead Online from inevitable collapse. While it might have seemed dramatic for those outside of the debate, it was true that, at the time, Red Dead Online had seemingly been abandoned by its developers. For the most part, any updates were meaningless, events were repetitive, and the world was exactly the same as it had been for years.
Admittedly, Rockstar Games hadn’t abandoned Red Dead Online, but it sure felt as though they had. As time wore on, the numbers dwindled, and both players and viewers dropped away from Red Dead Online and any associated content quite rapidly. By today, Red Dead Online is a considerably quiet title, and despite many potential features being listed by the community, Rockstar Games still hasn’t revived the platform in any way.
With that in mind, you’d think that integrating a Red Dead 2 cross-platform feature might help save the game a little. It would certainly bring all of the game’s players together into one central location, as that’s the very meaning of cross-platform play.
But is Red Dead Online crossplay? Has it ever been a cross-platform game?
Unfortunately, Red Dead Online is not cross-platform in any way, shape, or form. It’s a restricted title that locks players into their unique platform, regardless of whether they’re playing on PC, Xbox, or PlayStation. It’s not a crossplay game, nor it is a cross-progression game.
What’s the meaning of cross-progression? This simply means that if a player migrates from Xbox to PlayStation (for example), they must restart their game from the beginning, and none of their progress will move across. This is a typical, run-of-the-mill practice for Rockstar Games titles, as, by comparison, GTA 5 crossplay also doesn’t exist.
Sadly, this means that the community is somewhat divided, creating a rift on a platform already impacted by bad press. As gaming becomes more technically advanced, we’re seeing some of the best crossplay games emerge with accessible, cross-platform features present from day one. At present, it seems that there are absolutely no plans to integrate Red Dead Online crossplay features, meaning the community will remain divided forevermore.
There’s still a top-notch multiplayer experience to be had, but it’s reserved more for the newer players. It must be stressed that Red Dead Online is a bit of a grind, and once the base content is completed, there isn’t all that much to do, besides daily, repetitive tasks.
Is Red Dead Online cross-platform? No, but it is still a semi-decent multiplayer game in itself.
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