Rockstar is continuing its questionable overhaul of Red Dead Online, announcing that it will eliminate a quick source of in-game gold by revamping the game's daily challenge streak system. With Red Dead Online poised to become a standalone title on December 1, Rockstar is reshaping the game's mechanics to suit the new format, albeit with some controversial choices, and the decision to change the daily challenges has left some players conflicted.
Red Dead Online was released in 2018 as the supplementary online component to its big brother, Red Dead Redemption 2. While it initially didn't enjoy the critical prestige that Red Dead Redemption 2 did upon its release (or the player number of cousin GTA Online), reinvigorated update, DLC, and player support efforts eventually brought Red Dead Online up to scratch. Earlier this week, Rockstar implied that Red Dead Redemption 2 would no longer receive single-player support or DLC. That unpopular reveal was followed up by the announcement that Red Dead Online would become a standalone title on December 1 at a steeply discounted price - both changes may explain why gold farming will be getting harder in the future. Special in-game content can be purchased with gold, which players can obtain either through buying it or by earning it through the game's daily challenge streak system.
Players who log in daily and completed one challenge per day earned more gold depending the length of their streak, which capped out at 2.5x the starting point when players hit and maintained a 28-day streak. This meant that regular players could enjoy a healthy flow of daily gold; starting December 1, Rockstar will be damming up the stream. That reward system will now be resetting back to zero every 28 days regardless of how long player streaks have been, which means that players who have maintained a 28-day plus daily challenge streak and are earning 2.5x more gold will have to start over every four weeks. Although players will receive a treasure map and bonus RDO$ when they reset, fan reactions to the news has been mixed, but are skewing largely negative, as seen in Red Dead Online's Reddit and Twitter communities:
The move may very well be an ongoing ploy to shift players from Red Dead Redemption 2 to Red Dead Online, considering that RDR2 is two years old and likely isn't generating as much profit as its online component. In a world where microtransactions are king, developers like Rockstar are seeing the benefits of long-term profitability versus short bursts of cash from the initial sale of games, which may explain why there's plenty of new content for Grand Theft Auto Online, but no confirmation of a Grand Theft Auto 6. This is further supported by the fact that Rockstar has plenty in store for Red Dead Online for players to spend their in-game gold on, but seemingly nothing for Red Dead Redemption 2. Either way, dedicated players are unhappy - and rightfully so - about the prospect of paying more money for a game they already purchased.
It's an unpleasant pill to swallow that this sort of shift is going to become the new norm for mainstream gaming, as long as microtransactions continue to earn unprecedented piles of cash. Rockstar may be tardy to the MTX party, but their arrival was inevitable, and it's likely that future Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto installations will reflect that, no matter how angrily players tweet about it.
Sources: Drunkruskiman, RedDeadRDC