Red Dead Online has sadly passed away at the mere age of four years and eight content updates as Rockstar moves onto Grand Theft Auto 6, and Red Dead Redemption 2 players gather in their finest black suits to mourn the death of the beloved game in a giant online funeral.
Tributes have poured in from all over Twitter, as players gathered on RDR 2’s mountaintops…
Come to the mountain to have one final look before the funeral of red dead online 🙁 #RIPRedDeadOnline #RedDeadFuneral pic.twitter.com/MArihsxTSY
— hr_eev (@Walterthegent) July 12, 2022
…and in its graveyards…
#RedDeadFuneral To Red Dead community. ✌️ pic.twitter.com/nQWJ5mOVWM
— fauxSeb (@fauxSeb) July 13, 2022
…to mark the death of the exceptional 2018 sandbox western.
The funeral was originally organised by Red Dead fansite Red Dead News, and was chosen to mark one year, to the day, since Red Dead Redemption 2 last received any form of new, online content in the form of the Blood Money DLC.
At the announcement of the funeral, on July 6, Red Dead players may still have been holding out hope for their treasured cowboy shooter, but a subsequent post on the Rockstar Newswire, explaining that the developer had been “steadily moving more development resources towards the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series”, was taken as confirmation of Red Dead Online’s death.
Dressed all in black, and posing at various, scenic spots throughout Red Dead’s map, players have continued to submit their eulogies using the hashtag #RedDeadFuneral, some of which are tasteful…
RIP Red dead online😔😢 #RedDeadFuneral #SaveRedDeadOnline @RockstarGames pic.twitter.com/KGu5VHwhLq
— Fernando Rail🌞🌡️😰 (@FernandoRail) July 13, 2022
…and some not so tasteful.
Me, still playing after the funeral. #RedDeadFuneral https://t.co/6tMwiDWhdj
— Scotty K. (@ScottyK864) July 13, 2022
Fans may take some solace in the fact that Grand Theft Auto Online continues to be regularly updated, and there are several game-changing mods for Red Dead Redemption 2’s single player currently available, including a complete transformation of the game’s landscape, an overhauled, dynamic seasons system, and new AI and behaviours for police and lawmakers.
Nevertheless, today we mourn the passing of Red Dead Online, a multiplayer sandbox with enormous promise, abandoned too soon.
Red Dead Online. Born November 27, 2018. Died July 13, 2022.