Move Over GTA 6, One Of The Best Open World Games Is Getting Its Biggest Update Yet
A plan for the ages.
For those lucky enough to get their hands on a Switch 2 next month, this first year will be full of incredible games making their Nintendo console debut. And if a new report is to be believed, among those early releases could be one of the best open-world games ever made.
Red Dead Redemption 2, the 2018 western epic developed by Rockstar Games, could arrive on the Nintendo Switch 2 according to a new report from the website GameReactor and Nintenduo. The publications cited “sources close to Rockstar,” who claim the game could be released as early as later this year. This would mark the first time the game has appeared on a Nintendo console.
The sources claim that the Red Dead Redemption 2 port for Switch 2 wouldn’t happen in a vacuum. The game would receive an upgrade or current-gen patch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. While there are no specifics behind the report, I’d suspect a fairly straightforward upgrade on par with 2023’s controversial Red Dead Redemption port for PS4 and Switch. Stuff like improving the game’s framerate, which is currently locked at 30 frames per second on consoles, and graphical features like draw distance and increased foliage, seem more likely over something as substantial as Grand Theft Auto V many re-releases.
The tragic tale of Dutch Van Der Linde's gang could make its way to Switch 2 later this year.
Red Dead Redemption 2 would be a fantastic get for the Switch 2. It’s one of gaming’s most immersive and graphically impressive open worlds, even six years after release. It features a memorable story with some of the best writing in the medium. And to top it all off, it’s absolutely massive, making it a great candidate for players on the go. For Rockstar Games, which has sold 74 million units of the sequel so far as of February 2025, bringing it to a new console for the first time is a no-brainer move.
As for the upgrade on modern Sony and Microsoft consoles, it would be a nice way to tide fans over ahead of Grand Theft Auto VI. As has been the case with GTA V, fans will happily revisit Rockstar’s older games so long as they feature a fresh coat of paint. And considering players have been begging Rockstar to lift the framerate cap for Red Dead 2 on social media for years, an update like this would surely stir a new wave of interest in the game.
This is the latest in a string of rumors regarding Rockstar re-releasing its classic titles from the 2000s. 2008’s Grand Theft Auto IV is allegedly getting some sort of current-generation port. While Kotaku reported back in 2022 that plans for a substantial remaster were scrapped after the failures of GTA: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition, sources claim a simpler port of the game is now in order.
It’s pretty clear that despite its spotty past with the Japanese console maker, Rockstar and Take-Two are taking Nintendo’s platform a bit more seriously than before. While that relationship won’t necessarily culminate in a Switch 2 port for Grand Theft Auto VI, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told The Game Business last week that he and the company are big believers in the upcoming console-handheld hybrid.
“Historically, being a third-party in the Nintendo business has been a bit challenging,” Zelnick said during Take-Two’s earning call last week. “Nintendo's been very forthcoming in addressing that, and we're stepping up too because we have great optimism for the platform. In terms of what we would bring to any platform... We obviously wanna be where the consumers are.”
It all makes sense. The original Switch has sold more than 150 million units. And with the Switch 2 already on track to do just as well, publishers and developers alike would be foolish to ignore the potential there.
Even without the Switch, Take-Two subsidiary Rockstar Games is doing just fine. The 12-year-old Grand Theft Auto V has sold more than 215 million copies, according to recent numbers, maintaining its comfortable lead as the second-best-selling game of all time. All the while, the hype around its sequel is reaching a fever pitch over a year before release. The game’s second trailer garnered over 475 million views across internet platforms in 24 hours.
