Red Dead Online gets staggered launch starting tomorrow

Red Dead Redemption 2 launched one month ago to great critical acclaim and extraordinary sales. Since then, fans have been counting the unknown number of days to Red Dead Redemption 2’s highly anticipated online mode which many will assume will build off the formula of Grand Theft Auto V’s highly successful online mode.

Now, Rockstar has announced that Red Dead Online mode will drop starting tomorrow but hold your digital horses, there’s a catch. To prevent a disastrous launch like GTA Online in October 2013, Rockstar is taking some steps to make it easy for the servers. Starting tomorrow, owners of Red Dead Redemption 2’s Ultimate Edition (not the Special Edition) will gain access to the mode at 8:30 AM ET.

Those who played the game on October 26th, 2018 will gain access on Wednesday, November 28th, if you played on launch weekend (October 27th – October 29th), you’ll gain access on Thursday, November 29th. Everyone else will follow on Friday, November 30th.

Rockstar Games will launch Red Dead Online via beta but it will be available 24/7 (unless there’s maintenance or some sort of downtime), there’s no word on when they’ll take it out of beta but whatever progress you earn in the beta will carry over.

“The launch of the Red Dead Online Beta is the first step in what will be a continually expanding and dynamic world, and the beta period will allow us to deal with the inevitable turbulence of launching any online experience of this size and scale,” said Rockstar Games. ”During this process, we will be looking to our dedicated and amazing community to help us report and fix problems, share ideas, and assist in shaping the future of the full Online experience. As with all of our releases, we will strive to make the launch of Red Dead Online the best it can possibly be, and we ask that the community share that spirit with us over the next weeks and months.”

Rockstar will be going into full detail of what Red Dead Online consists of tomorrow but have offered some new details regarding the mode. Players will be able to encounter and hunt all animals seen in the single-player, fish, hunt for treasure, form posses and set-up camps, and more. Rockstar also promises a “sort of narrative tied to cooperative play for online posses”.

“With the gameplay of ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ as its foundation, ‘Red Dead Online’ transforms the vast and deeply detailed landscapes, cities, towns and habitats of ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ into a new, living online world ready to be shared by multiple players,” according to Rockstar Games. “Create and customize your character, tailor your abilities to suit your play style and head out into a new frontier full of things to experience.

“Explore this huge world solo or with friends. Form or join a Posse to ride with up to seven players; gather around the fire at your Camp; head out hunting or fishing; visit bustling towns; battle enemy gangs and attack their hideouts; hunt for treasure; take on missions and interact with familiar characters from across the five states; or fight against other outlaws in both spontaneous skirmishes and pitched set-piece battles; compete with other players or whole Posses in open world challenges and much more.”

GameZone will be doing an unscored review of Red Dead Online in the near future so stay tuned for that. Until then, you can party up with your posse starting this week in Red Dead Online.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is out now on Xbox One and PS4.