Ben-DutkaWell, it didn't.
As reported by Videogamer , Rockstar vice president Dan Houser mentioned that his company was told a western video game would be a flat-out "disaster." Yes, really.
Of course, this was before the critically acclaimed Red Dead Redemption shipped 5 million units within a few weeks of release, and well before it ended up selling 13 million copies all told. But in speaking about the upcoming Grand Theft Auto V , Houser had this to say in looking back at the development period for RDR:
"We loved Niko and felt he was a very strong lead protagonist for a game, and we were starting to get into John Marston. We were still being told a western was going to be a disaster, but we thought we were going [to] make something interesting with a strong character that you started to fall in love with."
That may sound ridiculous now but in truth, I sorta see where the "disaster" angle comes from. I mean, I was a little hesitant about the idea, too. Before RDR, there really wasn't a huge blockbuster Western-themed game, and don't forget that Rockstar was attacking that project as they attack most projects; i.e., spared no expense. Plus, we had heard a lot about a five-year design plan for the game and if you combine that with the absence of Western heavy hitters, being lukewarm about RDR almost made sense.
I don't know about the "disaster" part, though. Rockstar typically doesn't have anything to do with "disasters."
Related Game(s): Red Dead Redemption
Westerns could be a very popular genre. The time periods are interesting, because people have been there and through it. It just depends on how it's all implemented into the gameplay and R* nailed it.
I also have been hearing about the next Red Dead game on a couple Red Dead forums and machinima has a YouTube video with details leaked from magazine. Don't know of they are rumors or not, either way it has me intrigued. I'm anxiously awaiting that one!
Let's face it, if it wasn't Rockstar and if the game had a few bugs and wasn't super pretty it would have bombed.
The GTA formula, plus the Rockstar name and quality presentation is what sold the Western genre to people.
I'll make bet that it was probably Pachter who said it too.
Rockstar, the company that develops without budget and time limit.
Gotta love that.
thats exactly the problem though, it does not make "sense"!
one thing that amazes me that people just blind out refuse to understand!
its the "unproven" things that pose the biggest chance of being the next hit!
western had not been a hit before because they were all mediocre at best!
red dead revolver was a ok game, nothing special, and gun was even worse.
not to mention the warez games ubisoft keep churning out.
western was well overdue for a hit, it was just waiting for someone to come in and do it justice!
one thing that REALLY pisses me off about society these days.
these BS stereotypes, and ignorance really.
x has never sold well, so it never will.
what, change is impossible is it?
no one wants survival horror games, no one wants stealth games, no one wants hardcore platformer games, no one wants a story driven experience, no one wants western games, no one wants historical games like WW2.
its f*cking bullsh*t!
these genres dont sell well NOT because no one wants them, but because they have not been done their justice!
if stealth, survival horror, or whatever genre, was to get the attention, budget and quality of RDR than they would be selling 10s of millions of units as well!
one thing i wish publishers would wake up and understand!
theres a market for ANYTHING as long as it has the quality and content expected by it!
so, please, enough with these petty BS stereotypes and blind ignorance!
christ, were becoming 80 year old grannies stuck in their ways!
hell my granny still argues with me every time we use the aircon, she keeps insisting setting it on 18 is warmer than setting it on 22.
i keep saying no its not a power setting, your telling the stupid thing what temperature you want!
no its not she says, its a power gauge!
good luck arguing with her!
please dont turn us into that!!!!!!!!!!
So you don't like red dead redemption…?
how the hell did you come to that conclusion!?
RDR is my personal favorite of all of Rockstars games but it still suffered from the same repetitiveness that all their games suffer from.
I'm sure there are people out there who are eternal pessimists and will ALWAYS say "oh that game is going to fail"… Personally I've enjoyed just about ever western game I've played.
Pretty sure the reason it didn't turn out as a disaster is because the game went through a good amount of development hell before it finally got released and managed to pull it all together to make one of the best games of this generation. But it could have easily been a disaster.
Last edited by PHOENIXZERO on 11/11/2012 3:10:21 PM