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Do you hear it? The big grinding noise. It’s the sound of every publisher quietly trying to move their games away from October 26, the newly announced release date for Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2.
This means the game has been delayed from its previously announced spring 2018 window. In a blogpost on their site, Rockstar addressed the date change: "We apologize to everyone disappointed by this delay. While we had hoped to have the game out sooner, we require a little extra time for polish. We sincerely thank you for your patience and hope that when you get to play the game, you will agree the wait will have been worth it."
This is the second time that Red Dead Redemption 2 has been pushed back by Rockstar. Delays aren’t unusual for Rockstar’s huge releases, but the game being pushed back left Take-Two Interactive without a big release in 2017, and will leave them without a big release for the first half of 2018, too, barring their annual entries into the NBA and WWE titles.
For most publishers it would cause problems, but Take-Two is still making a significant amount of cash from Grand Theft Auto Online and the NBA franchise. Take-Two don’t appear concerned, as shortly after the delay, Take-Two restated their financial forecast for the coming year, estimating $700m in net operating income, and a record $2.5b in bookings, driven largely by the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, but also due to a "highly anticipated title from one of 2K’s biggest franchises."
