All the big E3 2016 announcements have come and gone (or so we think) and we’ve had some really awesome reveals – however, one notably absent game was Red Dead Redemption 2, or Red Dead 3.
The long awaited Rockstar sequel was by no means confirmed for the LA gaming convention, but things like a leaked map from back in April had everyone expecting something.
If a new rumour is to be believed (and I’m not sure you should believe it) Red Dead Redemption 2 was originally part of Sony’s E3 presentation, but was dropped at the last minute.
Before we get into exactly why the game was dropped, I invite you to grab your salt and consider that a Sony rep has already denied the rumour (see below).
Still, it’s an interesting – if slightly unbelievable – story, so read on and decide for yourself.
Several sources told PlayStationLifeStyle that Rockstar and Take-Two were planning to unveil Red Dead Redemption 2 at Sony’s E3 2016 press conference.
However, the tragic events in Orlando led to the company deciding it would be distasteful to go ahead with the reveal. As a result, Red Dead was replaced with the open world zombie game Days Gone instead.
Rockstar parent company Take-Two had previously said that they’d be at E3 2016 in a big way, which led most people to assume they’d be revealing a new game.
As it stands, all we’ve seen from Take-Two is some more of Mafia 3 (which isn’t a bad thing, because it looks awesome).
Meanwhile, journalist Jim Sterling mentioned in a recent video that companies had to change their plans due to the Orlando tragedy, while Redditors claiming to have “inside knowledge” have said the same – though I grant you the latter is an incredibly shaky source.
Personally, I call bull. I can see the thinking behind the decision, but if Sony wanted to avoid showing any guns… they didn’t.
Days Gone and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare both featured guns fairly heavily, and Detroit Become Human even showed off a hostage situation.
Then again, one report suggests that the Red Dead reveal would have seen someone walk into a bar and shoot everyone in there, which would obviously have been in especially poor taste.
I should stress again that this is all speculation, and even if Red Dead was dropped from the docket, I can’t imagine Sony or Take-Two would admit it.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.