Rockstar Games is huge. Their reputation precedes them, and every title they release pushes gaming forward whether it be in terms of creativity, scale, narrative, or technology. Rockstar Games skips E3 because they don’t need it. Their new projects are so anticipated they have announcements for their announcements. In what may be an extension of that practice, today Rockstar Games changed its logo to a red one on its social media accounts and tweeted out a splotchy red picture featuring their logo. In response, the internet has exploded, as is standard practice with all Rockstar news. Is this Rockstar Games announcing that they’ll soon announce when they’re going to announce Red Dead 3/Red Dead Redemption 2? It’d be about time. As Kotaku points out, it’s been just about five years since Rockstar announced their last title, Grand Theft Auto V. Maybe things aren’t as cut and dried as they seem, though. Rockstar Games isn’t just two franchises, you know? Here are the top 5 things that Rockstar’s red makeover could be alluding to, in the order of their likelihood.
5. Grand Theft Auto V Halloween Content
Hey, that red image with their logo sure does look like blood splatters. It also happens to be October, and Grand Theft Auto Online also happens to be a ridiculous money making machine. Rockstar has been updating GTAO constantly and their Halloween offerings in the past haven’t disappointed. They gave players new vehicles, spooky new masks, 30 face paints, and a slasher mode that let players hunt each other down in the dark in 2015. Rockstar has always seemed to appreciate Halloween; one of my favorite levels/missions/moments in all of gaming is the Halloween part of Bully, their excellent open-world delinquent-in-a-boarding-school-sim.
Good times.
However, it’s unlikely that Rockstar would give their entire online presence a makeover for DLC unless this was some crazy substantial content. It would have to be something similar to Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, but for Grand Theft Auto V to warrant their all red outfit and teaser logo image. This one is unlikely, but we shall see.
4. The Warriors
Rockstar Games released their PlayStation 2 and Xbox beat em’ up based on the 1979 film The Warriors to critical acclaim back in 2005. With impressively deep combat, an awesome atmosphere, and a hell of a good time to be had with a second player, Rockstar’s The Warriors was true to its source material and was a step forward for the beat em’ up genre (which hasn’t seen much love since the SNES besides Yakuza and this).
So The Warriors was a great game, a surprise commercial and critical success, and proof that Rockstar can conquer any genre they’d like, but why would Rockstar’s current teasing imply anything new from this property? To be honest, there isn’t much but color association (but then again, that’s why most of the internet thinks a Red Dead announcement is imminent), but there’s a bit to support this wild theory. Rockstar recently released The Warriors on PSN as a part of the PS2 on PS4 series which has allowed new players to experience it, and has brung the brawler back up in discussions. Since the release on PS4 is in 1080p with trophies included, its safe to say if we see anything new The Warriors related, it won’t be a remaster, but a new title. Then there’s the fact that the eponymous gang’s color is red. The game was also developed by Rockstar Toronto, and their logo looks like this:
That’s a lovely shade of red, don’t you think?
We don’t think a new The Warriors game is very likely to be announced, but we sure wish it was. With the dearth of both beat em’ up games and couch co-op games (on any console but the Wii U) another title like the first would be a welcome break from the industry’s current obsession with first person experiences and open-world checklist-fests. The Warriors was released in a simpler time when you could bust beer bottles over baseball jersey wearing mimes’ heads with a friend, and we miss that time. If this isn’t what the teaser is referring to, we hope they’ll at least consider a game in the same vein as The Warriors sometime in the future.
3. Manhunt
There are few franchises in video gaming that can compete with Grand Theft Auto in terms of controversy and outrage from politicians and parents. The only two that come to mind are Mortal Kombat, which is essentially the reason a rating system was created for video games, and Rockstar’s own Manhunt series. Manhunt is a magnificently macabre survival-horror and stealth series whose games have been blamed for a murder, received AO ratings before edits, and even been banned. Manhunt places you in the role of death-row inmate James Earl Cash forced to kill your way through a sick snuff film in order to gain your freedom, and in Manhunt 2 you are amnesiac mental patient Daniel Lamb who escapes an asylum during a storm and attempts to piece together his past while being hunted down by an evil organization. It’s not the grim plots that got these games their reputations, though; it’s the long, gruesome, varied, and detailed executions that players can perform to take out their enemies.
If the red image Rockstar shared through Twitter is actually meant to look like blood, the link here is obvious. Manhunt is Rockstar’s bloodiest franchise and hasn’t seen a release since 2007. The original Manhunt is also considered the better of the two, with the sequel being seen as somewhat of a misstep. What does a less than stellar sequel and a 9-years dormant franchise mean in the video game industry: a reboot. With horror games surging in popularity with the advent of Let’s Plays and titles like Amnesia, Outlast, P.T., Five Nights at Freddy’s, and the indie Japanese RPG maker scene, making a horror game is a good bet on seeing returns for any developer right now. A game like Manhunt would thrive in the current market, and I’m sure Rockstar could do incredible things to shake up the series’ formula and shock factor with the technology available now. The only thing that makes this unlikely is long this series has been asleep, and there haven’t really been so much as rumors about a third game for years. Rockstar is good at keeping secrets, though. Here’s hoping.
2. A New IP
A horror game? Something experimental? Is Agent finally getting made? Who knows?
No one is going on much information here. Rockstar changed the color of their logo images and tweeted out a red picture. For all we know, they might have just finally gotten tired of that old yellow, and we’re all theorizing over a simple graphic design choice. It really goes to show how much hype there is around this legendary game company.
With Grand Theft Auto V’s rerelease, we were treated to a brand new experience thanks to the addition of a first-person mode. Perhaps the learning experience in developing that mode has them wanting to make their own FPS. Rockstar also has plenty of experience in spooky (the Manhunt series, the creepy atmosphere of the countryside of San Andreas, the ghost in GTAV, Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare), so maybe they have plans to blow Outlast 2 and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard out of the water next year with a horrifying new game. There’s really no evidence for or against this idea, but we think it’s more believable than the other ideas we’ve proposed so far. All we know is that whatever Rockstar decides to release will be excellent, regardless of genre or theme.
1. Red Dead 3 / Red Dead Redemption 2
Who are we kidding? With heavy emphasis on the color red from Rockstar, plenty of rumors flying around, supposed leaks, Red Dead Redemption being made backward compatible with Xbox One, and the release of Red Dead Revolver for PS4 on PSN, all signs really do point to a sequel in the Red Dead series.
As much as other games on this list deserve another entry from Rockstar Games and as much as we’d like to see a wild new IP from the geniuses over there, it seems Rockstar covering their pages in red is a signal telling the world to get ready for a new Western epic. Red Dead Revolver is a crazy fun, over-the-top, arcadey shooter for PS2, and Rockstar followed it up with one of the best stories (and protagonists) in gaming and an epic Wild West playground in Red Dead Redemption. We don’t foresee another huge shift in style this time: whatever we get, whether it be called Red Dead 3, Red Dead Revolution, or Red Dead Redemption 2, it’ll probably largely resemble Red Dead Redemption. We’ve got no problems with that of course; Red Dead Redemption is undoubtedly one of the greatest games ever made, and definitely in the top 10 of its generation.
What do you think?
It’s probably another Red Dead, right? Do you think any other of our guesses are likely? Were these inferences a bit of stretch, or did some of it sound likely? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll let you know whenever Rockstar unveils what they’re hinting at.
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Written by ChronoSloth
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Video game reviewer who particularly loves the fourth and fifth generation of consoles. In an exclusive polygamist relationship with Nintendo and PlayStation. Fluent in Al Bhed and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 combo notation. Follow him on Instagram to see lots of pictures of video games.
