Rockstar Pauses Red Dead Redemption, GTA IV Remasters

Following recent rumors, Kotaku can confirm via its sources that Rockstar Games is currently focused on developing Grand Theft Auto 6, and has shelved all remakes following the poor reception of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition.

Yesterday, a tweet from Tez, an often reliable and trusted GTA insider, caught the attention of many Rockstar fans. According to the tweet, Red Dead Redemption and GTA IV remasters were no longer “on the table,” possibly due to the horrible mess that was last year’s GTA Trilogy remakes. While some questioned if this was true, I can confirm that Tez’s tweet is accurate and lines up with what I’ve been told.

According to sources with knowledge of Rockstar’s plans and future projects, the publisher is hoping that folks will forget all about the critically panned and botched classic GTA remasters released last year while it focuses most of its resources and energy on its next big game, Grand Theft Auto 6, which Rockstar earlier this year confirmed was in development.

However, while the current plan is to get Grand Theft Auto 6 finished and out the door, I’m told a Red Dead Redemption and GTA IV remaster aren’t entirely “out of scope” and could still happen in the future, after GTA 6 ships.

Kotaku has contacted Rockstar Games for comment.

Last year, in our report confirming the existence of the then-rumored GTA Trilogy remasters, we also explained that at the time Rockstar had plans to remaster Red Dead Redemption. At the time of the report, the idea of remastering RDR had been on the table for the publisher for a few years already, but now, in the wake of last year’s remasters flopping and demand for GTA 6 growing, the publisher has shifted plans again and is moving forward to the next big thing and not looking back, at least for the time being.

At the time of that report, I was told by sources that the reception and sales of the remasters would play a big factor in future remastering projects.

For those who don’t remember, 2021’s GTA Trilogy was released in a broken state, filled with graphical bugs and other problems that made the games hard to enjoy on any platform you played. While updates fixed many of these issues, the remastered art and menus still left many players unhappy. It also didn’t help that, in the lead-up to announcing the remastered trilogy, Rockstar and Take-Two went after old fan mods and projects, angering a community who could have stepped in to help fix the botched release.

As for when to expect Grand Theft Auto 6, none of my sources could share any specific details, but it seems that for now, at least, it seems that the plan is to move forward and hope people forget about the past.