Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive unveiled what many believed would be a remaster/remake of Red Dead Redemption earlier today, although it appears early rumors may have hyped up the announcement much more than it needed to be. Instead, it was revealed that the original Red Dead Redemption is simply being ported to both PS4 and Nintendo Switch for the first time, as the PS4 isn't backwards compatible with PS3 titles and the game has never released on a Nintendo console prior.
It's an announcement that's been catching an awful lot of heat from Red Dead Redemption fans, and not just because they're disappointed about the fact it's not a remaster. The biggest point of contention is the asking price, as the port of the game will be sold for $49.99/£39.99 when it launches later this month, which is pretty steep considering it's a straight port with no graphical upgrades, and you can buy pre-owned copies on Xbox 360 for a fraction of the price.
Take-Two has attempted to justify the price by explaining that the game's Undead Nightmare DLC and several pieces of content from the Game of the Year Edition are being included, though fans have also been keen to point out that the ports are also stripping out the multiplayer, which was a big part of the original game's charm. A lot of players are also pretty irritated that Red Dead Redemption is skipping PC yet again despite being 13 years old.
Like with most big gaming controversies, fans have been making their anger known using the usual social media platforms. There are several threads on the game's subreddit posted by players urging others to boycott the game and emulate the Xbox 360 version on PC instead, with almost everyone else stating that they're just going to wait for a sale and not buy day one. The port's official announcement trailer on YouTube has also been bombarded with dislikes and negative comments from angry Rockstar fans.
At the time of writing, the dislike ratio is pretty hefty, sitting at 57k dislikes to 28k likes. You'll also find a whole bunch of comments from players saying things like Rockstar "never fails to disappoint" and that it's impressive that the developer has somehow managed to turn one of the easiest wins into yet another controversy. Between this and the recent GTA: The Trilogy debacle from a couple of years ago, it's difficult to see Rockstar winning its fans' trust back any time soon.