The announcement on August 7 of a Red Dead Redemption 1 port for the Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4 left fans feeling much less than impressed when the price tag was revealed to be $50. However, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has defended the decision, claiming the price is "commercially accurate" for what’s on offer.
Anticipation had been high for this announcement, as the rumormill had been churning out whispers of a Red Dead Redemption 1 remake or remaster, so when it was revealed the announcement was for a direct port of the game, with no graphical or gameplay improvements, fans were understandably annoyed when they realised the price was $50. That’s the same price you’d expect to pay for a new 2023 game, not a port of a 13 year old game.
The outrage has been loud and plentiful, but Zelnick isn’t worried. "That's just what we believe is the commercially accurate price for it," Zelnick said, speaking to IGN after a Take-Two conference.Hannah Sage, Take-Two's executive vice president of finance, also pointed out the game includes the Undead Nightmare DLC as well, to which Zelnick added that DLC "was a great standalone game in its own right when it was originally released."
With that in mind, is $50 a fair price for Red Dead Redemption 1? You can currently buy the game with DLC included on Xbox, for $43, putting it within spitting distance of the price for Switch and PS4. Only, the Xbox version also contains a functional multiplayer, as well as a number of improvements specifically to help Xbox Series S/X backwards compatibility. When the PS4 and Switch port doesn’t have any multiplayer, and seems to have no improvements, it’s clear everyone other than Xbox players are missing out.
The first Red Dead Redemption lives somewhat in the shadow of its better known successor, Red Dead Redemption 2, helped largely by the fact it’s been unavailable for a large number of players. While Xbox gamers have been able to access RDR1 through the Xbox’s excellent backwards compatibility, Playstation gamers have been forced to keep a Playstation 3 alive if they want to replay one of the best narrative experiences out there.
The ported version of Red Dead Redemption will release on August 17, and will be available on the Playstation 4 and the Nintendo Switch.