As some of you may remember, we hosted a poll on our site two weeks ago which sought to determine which of the three most probable projects Rockstar is currently working on the players want to see the most. Let's just say, Rockstar, if rumors are true and you're really working on Red Dead 3 — it might be time to slam the brakes and refocus on your flagship franchise, GTA!
Now, as one of the most popular and most-visited fan sites related to Rockstar content, we're pretty confident that a poll hosted here is good authority on what the mainstream audience wants. The closed poll with the final results can be viewed on the article page where it was conducted. Over the two weeks that the poll was open, we collected a total of 858 votes. Multiple choices were not allowed.
The results are pretty clear. 422 voters, accounting for 49.18% of the total, chose Grand Theft Auto 6 as the project that the wanted to see the most. In all honesty, this does not surprise us. The immense popularity of GTA 5 undoubtedly gives the sequel a bigger potential audience, since it achieved greater mainstream popularity than Red Dead Redemption. If a player who has played GTA but not RDR, obviously they'll be more stoked for a sequel to the game they have played.
GTA 6 has been sitting in the limbo of "obviously coming but unconfirmed" pretty much since 5 was released. While still far off from an official confirmation, we have it on pretty good authority (alongside, you know, common sense) that the game is under development. Add to that an obnoxiously active rumor-mill that keeps polluting the press, and it is obvious that the game is anticipated. I mean, it's generating more internet traffic than most games that actually exist. That's got to amount to something, right?
It can't be doubted that the prospect of another major Grand Theft Auto game is very pleasing to the fans. Discussion of possible features is near-constant, players are debating the setting of the game — to which we've dedicated two weekly article series — and speculation as to its possible release date is rampant.
The other two options present in the poll were Red Dead 3 and GTA 5 Story DLC. Now, several commenters called us out on "Red Dead 3" because "2 hasn't even been released yet". It is important to note that Red Dead Redemption was preceded by Red Dead Revolver, meaning that it was the first, Redemption was the second and therefore a new Red Dead game would be the third. We wrote as much in that article, but hey, sometimes you just have to comment before reading the whole thing.
We don't quite understand this whole "Red Dead Redemption 2" thing, since it's quite clear that the third will also have a subtitle starting with "re". That said, we're Red Dead Repulsed by the erroneous Red Dead Reporting of the game's possible name. The proliferation of this misconception is Red Dead Regrettable.
We were rather surprised by the results here, expecting Red Dead 3 to be tied with GTA 6. However, as it turns out more people want to see story DLC for Grand Theft Auto 5 than a new Red Dead game. Story DLC got 255 votes, while RD3 could only garner 181 supporters. This could be chalked up to Rockstar having announced story DLC way back when, though it was likely quietly canned since.
So there you have it. GTA is enjoying a massive lead in terms of popularity over Red Dead, with fans preferring Grand Theft Auto DLC over a whole new Red Dead game. Obviously we don't expect this to change anything over at Rockstar, but if they're looking at this while working on a new open world wild-west romp, they might not exactly feel elated. Conversely it could make them work harder to challenge the popularity of the GTA series.
The question of story DLC being added to GTA 5 has been floating about for a long time. Early on in the game's history, it was officially announced on the Newswire that the game will get additional story content, however ever since things have been very hush-hush. At one point Rockstar again confirmed that they're working on it, only to have Take-Two Interactive, their parent company, deny this claim.
As GTA Online gained popularity, chances for story DLC became ever more slim. It looked like the resources to create a single player expansion were instead invested into Online DLC packs which, though free, encouraged the purchase of Shark Cards. The tactic worked, resulting in microtransactions bringing in half a billion in profits some time ago.
In the meantime, Take-Two kept dropping hints that they'll let GTA rest for a bit. Strauss Zelnick once spoke about the company wanting to avoid franchise fatigue. While in context, this meant that they'll keep away from an annual release schedule, it also alluded that they'll probably opt against releasing two games in one franchise consecutively.
Take-Two was also hyping up Rockstar's E3 appearance this year, however after a sudden no-show, players were concerned about the state of the company's next project. This was when some insider sources claimed that the planned announcement of Red Dead 3 was put off due to the shootings in Ohio.
While the source seemed credible, nothing less than an official announcement can be considered true confirmation. In lieu of such, we can only speculate as to the nature of the next game to be released by Rockstar. While this poll clearly shows what the community would want the most, the popularity of the Red Dead franchise is not to be disregarded.
When Red Dead Redemption was added to the list of backwards compatible games for the Xbox One, sales for the game skyrocketed and boosted it into the Amazon toplists. Players have been calling for a PC port ever since it originally launched in 2010. The backwards compatibility announcement sparked discussion about a Red Dead Remaster (okay, we'll stop now), however that's unlikely to happen due to the assets likely having been lost since.
Which of the three options did you pick? Were you among the large GTA 6 crowd?
