Red Dead Redemption 2 Has Been in Development For 8 Years, Triggered Rockstar Consolidation

Grand Theft Auto V was easily one of the most ambitious games of last-generation, if not the most ambitious. And Rockstar Games looks poised to push the limits again this generation with the release of Red Dead Redemption 2.

In order to bring its vision to life and live up to the Rockstar Games' standard, the developer has not only been developing Red Dead Redemption 2 for eight years, but it has begun to consolidate its development teams so that they can all function as one, massive force.

News of Rockstar Games development structure changes come via a new interview with IGN, where co-studio head of Rockstar North, Rob Nelson, revealed that not only has Red Dead Redemption 2 been in development since 2010 (aka the year when Red Dead Redemption hit), but it has worked during this time to consolidate its team under one large Rockstar Games umbrella.

According to Nelson, the move comes not out of convenience, but out of necessity, noting that a 50-person team used to be able to make a game, but things have gotten bigger, and bigger, and bigger, to the point that 50 is nowhere near enough to ship the massive games Rockstar is in the business of shipping these days.

Interestingly, as a result, Red Dead Redemption 2 will not be shipping as a Rockstar San Diego title, like the first game did, rather it will be released as a game simply from Rockstar Studios.

And it makes sense that Rockstar Games had to make drastic changes to make Red Dead Redemption 2, because according to Nelson, it had to "fundamentally rethink" how to create the game it wanted to create. "There was no other way," said the studio head.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is slated to release on October 27th for PS4 and Xbox One.

In other recent and related news, a batch of 10 new screenshots of the game were released today, offering up a look at characters, horseback riding, and more. Further, details of what side missions and side content will look like have also been revealed. And like everything about Red Dead Redemption 2 so far, the side content sounds very ambitious.