Red Dead Redemption II In The Making For 8 Years, “Global Effort” Across Rockstar Studios

Rockstar Games has revealed that Red Dead Redemption II development started 8 years ago, and almost all Rockstar Studios are working on it.

During a recent interview with IGN, Rockstar North co-studio head and art director Rob Nelson has revealed that Red Dead Redemption 2 has been in the making for around eight years now.

Basically, according to Nelson, as soon as they wrapped up the production of the original Red Dead Redemption, multiple studios at Rockstar Games started to think about what they should be doing for a sequel to that title.

“I think when we finished this one we decided what story we wanted to tell for the sequel,” he told the site. “I think that sort of informed where we wanted to go and set ourselves the challenges ahead”.

“We always like to move to new hardware when we can go from the ground-up, because it let’s us push the core ideas we’re always chasing and playing with, and trying to realise much further. Every time. Every generation. We get to push those ideas further.”

On top of that, interestingly, the art director revealed that this time around the game won’t be a single studio effort as it has started to be made by a 50-people team but ended up being a global work the Rockstar label has managed across multiple software houses under its umbrella.

So, Red Dead Redemption 2 won’t be a Rockstar North or Rockstar San Diego game but will be labeled a Rockstar Games Production.

“We’ve done it out of necessity. It used to be that a 50-person team could make a game, and then it just got bigger and bigger and bigger,” Nelson added.

“Since work began on the project, Rockstar has gradually consolidated all of its studios into a single team spanning the globe. So whereas previously it shipped games made by Rockstar North or Rockstar San Diego, Red Dead 2 will be presented as a Rockstar Games Production. A global effort.”

Red Dead Redemption 2 is releasing on October 26, 2018 for PS4 and Xbox One.