Who Owns Red Dead Redemption?

The franchise began as Red Dead Revolver, a Western action game originally in development at Angel Studios for Capcom. When Take-Two's Rockstar label acquired Angel Studios in 2002 and renamed it Rockstar San Diego, the project transferred with it. Rockstar published Red Dead Revolver in 2004, a modest success that established the Western setting and Dead Eye slow-motion gunplay mechanic.

Rockstar San Diego then spent five years building a true open-world successor. Red Dead Redemption released in May 2010 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, casting players as former outlaw John Marston hunting his old gang across a dying frontier. The game won widespread critical acclaim, sold more than 15 million copies, and received the Undead Nightmare expansion the same year.

Red Dead Redemption 2, released October 26, 2018, became one of the most commercially successful entertainment products ever made. A prequel set in 1899 following outlaw Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang, it earned more than $725 million in its opening weekend, one of the largest entertainment launches in history at that time. The game received near-universal critical praise for its writing, world detail, and systems depth.

The game also included Red Dead Online, a persistent multiplayer mode launched in beta in late 2018. Rockstar wound down major content updates for Red Dead Online in 2022 to concentrate resources on Grand Theft Auto VI, though the mode remains playable and contributes to recurrent spending.

Take-Two's November 2025 earnings report confirmed Red Dead Redemption 2 had sold more than 79 million copies, passing Mario Kart 8 to become one of the top-selling games ever made, with the series above 106 million units. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has repeatedly described Red Dead as a franchise the company intends to return to, though no sequel has been officially announced as of November 2026.