Take Two CEO Defends Red Dead Redemption Port Price As ‘Commercially Accurate’

Monday's surprise announcement that a mostly unchanged version of the original Red Dead Redemption will be coming to PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch later this month didn’t go over well with fans. Despite the game itself being 13-years-old and the PS4 being a decade old, the port costs $50 and dashed hopes for a more fleshed out Red Dead Redemption remaster.

But Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick argued that the price set for the re-release is justified as it reflects the value of what customers are getting.

“That's just what we believe is the commercially accurate price for it,” Zelnick told IGN following the company’s earnings call Tuesday.

Take-Two’s EVP of Finance, Hannah Sage, added that those who buy Red Dead Redemption on Switch and PlayStation 4 will also get Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, a zombie themed expansion that adds an entirely new campaign and horror themed side content.

Zelnick added that Undead Nightmare in itself was “a great standalone game in its own right when it was originally released, so we feel like it's a great bundle for the first time, and certainly a great value for consumers.”

While both Red Dead Redemption and its Undead Nightmare expansion are certainly worth experiencing, it had recently become impossible to do so on modern Playstation consoles. After the game left Playstation Now, Sony’s former cloud gaming service, last October, Sony players have only been able to experience Red Dead Redemption on the PlayStation 3.

But while this re-release increases the game's availability on Sony consoles, it is still cheaper to play it on Xbox, where modern consoles will upscale it to 1440p for just $30. Buying the expansion separately is just $10, making the package $10 cheaper than the upcoming re-issue. The Xbox version of the game also still has functioning multiplayer.

Meanwhile, PC players still hoping for a chance to play the game at all will have to continue to wait. Zelnick implied that it is up to the individual developer, or “label,” to decide where these games appear.

"It depends on the vision that the creative teams have for a title,” Zelnick told IGN when asked about the lack of a PC port for Red Dead Redemption. “It really depends on the title and how the label feels about it, the platform, and what we think the opportunity is for consumers."

PC players have been wanting a port of Red Dead Redemption since its original release in 2010. Red Dead is one of the few remaining open-world Rockstar games to not get a PC release, which is particularly harrowing for the audience considering its prequel, Red Dead Redemption 2, has been available on the platform since 2019.