Red Dead Redemption 2 Publishers Talk About the Rise of Fortnite: RDR2 Getting Battle Royale?

With the rise of Fortnite showing no signs of slowing, it’s only natural for other developers and publishers to look for inspiration and ideas from the extremely popular game. We’ve already seen that the latest Call of Duty game, Black Ops 4, will not have a single player campaign, opting for a Battle Royale mode called Blackout instead. It seems that Activision, publisher of the Call of Duty franchise, is not the only major company with eyes on stealing a piece of the Battle Royale pie, with the earnings call for Take-Two revealing that the other major publishers and developers are keeping a close eye on the situation.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick spoke at length about the Battle Royale boom and what it might mean for future games. "I think if one changed one's business to follow other people's big hits, you'd be constantly playing catch up," Zelnick explained. "And to say you wouldn't be in second place is an understatement. You might remain in last place. So it's our job to innovate, and more often than not that has driven our success."

Zelnick then elaborated on what he feels the company can learn from Epic Games success, "Maybe the biggest learning is just the reinforcement of the fact that big hits by their very nature are unexpected. What drives a big hit is innovation not derivation," said Zelnick. "That's what we're proud of around here. When we put out Red Dead Redemption, the conventional wisdom was that western titles do not work in the video game business -- and Red Dead Redemption was a big hit and we have extremely high expectations for Red Dead Redemption 2. So I think the fact that Fortnite surprised everyone, particularly given where Fortnite came from--after all, what is now in the market is based on a prior release that did not perform all that well. It's just a reflection of the fact that if you innovate and give consumers what they want, you can get an extraordinary result. And while we would love to corner the market in hits, and we certainly see it as our job to do so, we don't have all of the hits and we shouldn't expect to."

So what does this mean for the upcoming Red Dead Redemption 2, and are we likely to see a Battle Royale type game set in the Wild West? The answer is a resounding possibly. With E3 so close, most developers and publishers are playing their cards very close to their chest, so as not to ruin any possible surprises. The first Red Dead Redemption was a smash success due to its engrossing storyline and excellent gameplay, but it also featured a multiplayer system that was very reminiscent of how Grand Theft Auto 5’s multiplayer lobbies turned out. Regardless of whether RDR2 features a Battle Royale mode or not will likely not impact its success as a game, but with recent talk of big money making an appearance to the genre, anything is possible.

(Banner image via rockstargames.com)