Rockstar Games is correct to focus on future projects

Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto are two of the biggest names in the gaming industry, both of which were developed and released by Rockstar Games. Their two most popular titles, Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption two, are both in the top 10 best selling games of all time. This is just one of the reasons that many customers are upset at Rockstar Games’ recent decision to remove people from the development teams of their older games.

Recent Rockstar Games leaks have revealed that Rockstar has shelved the development of remastered versions of Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption, as well as stopped any major updates to Red Dead Redemption two, in order to focus on their upcoming addition to the Grand Theft Auto series. These revelations have caused many players to become angry with Rockstar for their seeming abandonment of older products simply in the name of greed.

I disagree with statements that the company is in the wrong for their developmental decisions outlined above. For one they are perfectly within their rights as a company to change the focus of their developer teams. It also should not be surprising to most people that a corporation that generates a large portion of their income from one time purchases of their products wants to focus on their next big product.

It is simply an unrealistic thought process to believe that Rockstar should be able to create a new high-quality products while maintaining the exact same level of attention towards old products.

Many customers have argued that Rockstar has waned from their once strong company values, but this is also wrong. Rockstar has always been a company focused on solidly made single player video games that include a multiplayer mode meant to be played as filler in between new releases.

Another point one could make in favor of Rockstar’s decision is that a remaster of a game is, in most cases, not something that is done very often. It could be seen as akin to a reboot of a classic movie; it is only done to improve the production quality of an already popular piece of media while marketing it in a way to pull in more customers. I might add that Rockstar also doesn’t have the best history in reference to remasters, having created the monstrosity that they titled, “Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy, The Definitive Edition.” A trilogy of games that had so many game-breaking bugs and such a lack of soul that it was denounced by most of its player base.

Remasters of an old game should not be a main focus for a company, unless it is either something being asked for by their community, or as a piece of filler content in anticipation of a new game.

Some players think that Rockstar is biased in not discontinuing updates for Grand Theft Auto V: Online while doing so for other games, but they have a good reason. Currently Rockstar makes most of their money from in-game microtransactions from Grand Theft Auto V, followed by the same thing in Red Dead Redemption two. This means if they discontinued updates for its multiplayer, they would lose a vast amount of income.

The most popular argument I’ve heard so far against Rockstar’s decisions is that they are supposedly abandoning their most loved titles in the pursuit of material gain. This argument would hold more weight if it were true that abandoning updates for Red Dead Redemption two didn’t decrease the amount of money they make from microtransactions in that game, which is another one of Rockstar’s main streams of income.

I’ve also taken notice that many of the people complaining about these decisions are the same people who have been nagging Rockstar for a new game for multiple years. It is hypocritical of a customer to ask for something of a company and then not understand the sacrifices that need to be made in order to make a higher quality product than the one that came before.

Despite how the overall fanbase of Rockstar is reacting, many critics and influencers in the gaming industry believe that this is a fair, if not positive, decision by Rockstar games.

Rockstar Games is financially correct in stopping updates of older games and canceling remasters. They are also well within their moral and legal rights to focus on future content as it is in the best interest of their customers and the company as a whole. Rockstar should be able to make this decision in peace.