Is Epic Games Store to Blame for Red Dead Redemption 2's Poor PC Sales?

Red Dead Redemption 2 has finally come to PC, but sales have been underwhelming. Is Epic Games Store to blame for the poor sales?

[MasterChief3624]

One of the best examples of the dangers of conflation that I've seen on here. Pure conjecture with no basis in truth.

[N4G_allows_fake_news]

How is this site not banned from N4G yet?

[Kados]

You should try actually reading the article before bashing it.

[N4G_allows_fake_news]

I did read it. It completely skipped the fact that RDR2 was released on the Rockstar Launcher on PC first, and sold most of its units there.

The article says the game didn’t sell well on PC. It’s not true.

[Unspoken]

Have to blame somebody right?

[Skuletor]

Can't blame Epic when it's on Rockstar's own store and Steam now too. Maybe R* should have released it on PC, at the same time as the consoles.

[SegaGamer]

Yep. Red Dead Redemption is not GTA, they can't hold out on selling it on PC for so long like they do with GTA, it just doesn't have anywhere near the same appeal, so most people won't care to wait that long for it.

A lot of people that bought RDR2 on console weren't going to buy it again on pc. If they do, they will get it when it goes on sale for cheap.

[Skuletor]

Your last paragraph nailed it for me. I already beat the game on console, will probably buy it again for PC when it's heavily discounted. GTA V is often on sale for under $20 now, RDR2 will probably drop in price sooner that GTA did.

[Teflon02]

But you see, steam doesn’t even advertise the game for me. I had to look to see if it was released. Don’t blame valve when they get done dirty like that. Bet if day 1 pc release it was on steam it would have done much better. All they had to do is make a more appealing deal on the social club and let the game ride on the other stores. That whole make steam wait kilt it for me personally. I like my games being in one place even if I’ll need both launchers. Saw the game yesterday and said I’m not even hyped for it anymore forget it

[DaReapa]

@Sega

"A lot of people that bought RDR2 on console weren't going to buy it again on pc. If they do, they will get it when it goes on sale for cheap."

I fall in the latter category. I've beat the game on PS4, but will hold off completing extra missions until I pick it up on Steam.

[nucky64]

but what happened to all of those people on console articles about the game saying they're going to wait for the pc version?

[Profchaos]

Yeah I 100% completed the game but the PC didn't offer the ability to transfer my online character to it so if I've seen every inch of the story and played to level 50 in the online mode there's no incentive for me to rebuy unlike GTA v on PC with transfer

[Vits]

That is true. The year gap between consoles and the PC release is the main reason for the low sales. However I would argue that cock blocking Steam for a month also hurted their total sales.

[rob-GP]

Doubt it hurt the sales at all, you just can’t see the sales numbers of stadia, EGS or the rockstar store, only Steam. So yeah, probably affected ‘Steam’ sales, but not overall sales

[Vits]

@rob-GP
Is this a joke? Hurting Steam sales is hurting their total sales.... that is how total sales works.

[The_Sage]

If I were the developer and released a game on PC and it didn't sell well for whatever reason I would be looking at profit vs cost to see if it would be worth doing it again. The way I look at things, if you made only $10 profit, you still made a profit.

[xX1NORM1Xx]

No... they released it a year after console, it was broken (maybe still is, I’m not a fan of the game so I don’t pay attention too it) and it’s one of rockstars more slow burning games.

It’s definitely not because of epic, It’s on every launcher pretty much but why would you rush out to buy a game that people have had for a year for full price higher than any normal pc game including new AAA releases?

[Shuckylad]

I think we should blame epic store for global warming too. Jeez...

[ocelot07]

Can't blame epic for everything you know lol. RDR2 is annoying game imo maybe that's why it's not selling great. However, I do worry that maybe Rockstar will look at this and wonder if it's worth porting to pc in future.

[Father__Merrin]

no it isnt. read dead is no gta it wont have anywhere near the popularity on youtube twitch etc as its too slow paced

[MadLad]

Knowing your past comments, had it sold well, you'd be praising the store and giving it all the credit you could to it providing said sales.

[Shane Kim]

I thought all pc games sold worse than their console counterparts, so this is nothing new.

[shaenoide]

Overpriced and It's not a very good game To begin with. Stunning visuals but poor gameplay.

[TheColbertinator]

Don't worry. Rockstar has got a plan. They just neeeed some more money!

[MrVux000]

''Have some goddamn FAITH!''

[xTonyMontana]

I doubt it helped but the release almost came out of nowhere, it certainly was a lot more low key than GTA 5 PC release.

[Blu3_Berry]

Honestly I think it's the fact that it came out extremely buggy and broken which hurt the sales. Many people probably refunded because they could not get it to run. I do think it is selling under expectations. I mean hell, it was on sale for 20% off on Steam a WEEK after it released for full price. That right there tells me that it was selling below their estimated sales. I feel bad for people to paid full price.

[PhoenixRising37]

I blame the fact that nobody wanted RDR2. We want GTA6!

[Sophisticated_Chap]

Rockstar has nobody but themselves to blame. Releasing a year after consoles, launch bugs, one month Epic exclusivity deal are all things that Rockstar has the power to change next time around. Another point I would mention, is that it is pretty clear that RDR2 was not liked by the fans as much as the first game, so there's that too.

[MadLad]

Didn't help. Also doesn't help PC people got to watch the rather mixed reception after the initial honeymoon period. Divisive mechanics and a crap multiplayer component doesn't exactly scream "BUY ME"!

[D__RAiL]

nah just a lot of us PC gamers own a PS4 Pro too and already bought it

[tontontam0]

That's unexpected where are those "millions" of epic haters I see on this site who says they are going to buy the game on steam.

[MadLad]

Or they just didn't buy the game because a lot of people found it boring when it first released *shrug*

[Rachel_Alucard]

I would've bought it but found out none of your online progress transfers like GTAO. So that destroyed any reason for me to continue caring.

[william_cade]

Not really. There's just more people that want to be wizards and knights or modern day gangsters than cowboys. I love the game, but not every one is going to be into the wild west thing.

[xVOLTx]

Yes.

[Tross]

EGS may be a cancer, but this is not on them.

[PCgamer98]

Poor sales? It's one of the top selling game on steam and not to mention it's still almost sold at full price.

[Kitsunami]

It still had great sales on the platforms it launched on for PC. This is a lie. It did however underperform, the reason is that again as many here have said a lot of people who own a console and a pc just bought it on console and wont buy it again.

[rob-GP]

No, it’s not. It launched on EGS, Stadia and Rockstars own launcher on day one, with Steam a month later. We’ve seen games like Borderlands 3 have massive success, and Outer Worlds, yet they have a year exclusivity. The issue isn’t EGS, even though the haters seem to want to push that agenda, it’s because it came to consoles a year earlier and everyone played it there and realised the online portion wasn’t as robust as GTA V

[Profchaos]

No one knows the sales figures from the rockstar launcher and it seems that had a sale on the game over launch which means more people may have brought the game on that launcher.

[_LarZen_]

No. It was available on Rockstars own launcher and now also Steam. Most probably played it on PS4 when it launched.

[Haaliax]

I want to buy it but haven't because of the performance issues. Decided to buy it on console instead

[CrustifiedDibbs]

i bought it on xbox. it was an average game at best. dont plan on buying it again.

[CoNn3rB]

I'd mostly blame it on the poor optimisation.