Rockstar once worried that fans would find Red Dead Redemption 2 boring after spending time with GTA 5 and its trio of protagonists.
After years of primarily offering a singular protagonist for you to experience its in-game worlds through, Rockstar broke tradition by going with three for GTA 5 – giving you the option to swap between the trio as their narrative journeys intertwined with each other. Considering GTA 5 still sells millions of copies a year, I’d say it worked pretty well.
In fact, it almost worked too well, as Rockstar became nervous about moving on to Red Dead Redemption 2 and the singular cowboy it offered to you to play as.
Speaking to TroisCouleurs about GTA 6, Rockstar North co-lead Rob Nelson delves into the journey from GTA 5 to Red Dead Redemption 2, and how that’s influenced where the developer is today.
“We always look back at the last games and think about how to evolve on them and move them forward,” he says. “And so, with GTA 5 with three protagonists that were connected but individual in their own way, and then going to Red Dead Redemption 2, which was obviously Arthur’s story, we were slightly nervous people were going to be bored with just one protagonist.
“And we did have people ask, ‘Are you going to be able to switch between members of the gang?’ There were questions about that. I forgot about that until now. And you think about it, and you know, people speculate.”
Looking back, Nelson says that it “feels funny now,” because Arthur “worked as a character.” Partly because Rockstar gave itself the space to “really drill into his journey.” In fact, the way his story shifts depending on your choices left such an impact on the team that you can see some form of it in GTA 6.
“We wanted to take the depth that we were able to add into the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 and the ability to interact with the world in a much more significant way, but then also this sort of emotional connection that people end up having with Arthur,” Nelson shares. “Is there a way that we bring that into GTA, and how could we do it? So, we had played around with different ideas; we knew we wanted to come back and continue playing with the idea of multiple protagonists.
“We thought about different options but ultimately wanted to try a duo, a partnership of some kind. If they’re in relationship, or have the potential to be in [a] relationship, what does that feel like? So it’s a couple, it’s Bonnie and Clyde. And then as soon as we thought about it, it was obvious. It became the very clear choice for us and felt like something we had to try.”
Considering that Rockstar was once worried about Red Dead Redemption 2 boring GTA 5 fans, you have got to say the outcome the team got wasn’t bad at all, hm?