Red Dead Redemption 2 is likely to generate sales numbers close to that of its critically acclaimed predecessor, Michael Goodman, Director of Digital Media Strategies at Strategy Analytics, has said.
Speaking during an interview with We Write Things, Goodman suggested that the upcoming Wild West title isn’t likely to double sales of the original Red Dead Redemption, despite the success of fellow Rockstar Games stablemate, Grand Theft Auto 5. Rather, he feels the game will likely move around the same number of copies (perhaps a bit more) as RDR.
Red Dead Redemption 2 sales won’t be as big as you might think
“I use [14 million] as sort of your baseline number, then it’s plus or minus that number,” commented Goodman. “If they do it right, then it’ll be plus or minus that number. If they blow it, then obviously, they won’t hit [14 million]. That’s what I would think of in terms of what your market size is. I would be hard pressed to imagine a scenario where you’re going to double what the original did.”
“The way I think about it is you’ll get about 80 percent of the people who purchased the original, they’ll purchase the sequel. Then you’ll get about 20-30 percent of new people. That’s if you do everything right. My top end would be 110 percent of original sales and that’s really hard to do. Very rarely do sequels perform as well as their original,” Goodman said.
Related – Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer
Rockstar Games and publisher Take-Two Interactive have yet to set a concrete Red Dead Redemption 2 release date, but has said that the game will arrive at some point in fall 2017 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Not much is known about the plot right now, although artwork has indicated the game will centre on seven new characters.
RDR 2 will however feature an expansive multiplayer world, with reports suggesting that Rockstar is going down the same path as GTA Online for its Wild West franchise. Furthermore, PS4 owners will gain access to content earlier than Xbox One owners, although Rockstar hasn’t specified what this will be at present.
Don’t forget you can now stream Red Dead Redemption via PlayStation Now.