Rockstar games – at least their own in house ones in their own big series – usually end up doing remarkably well, not just commercially, but also critically (Grand Theft Auto 4 and Grand Theft Auto 5 rank as two of the highest rated games of all time). So of course, expectations are high from the upcoming Red Dead Redemption 2 on that front as well.
And according to industry analyst Michael Pachter, RDR2 is set to have a strong performance as far as review scores go. In an exclusive interview with GamingBolt, Pachter stressed that Red Dead Redemption 2 would score well.
“Rockstar has a mixed bag of results,” Pachter said. “So they’ve had games that are not as well received critically, but certainly, I can’t remember a game ever from Rockstar getting a Metascore less than 83 or so. And obviously, games like GTA5 have 97, which probably makes them the highest rated games, maybe Ocarina of Time is higher. But they’re consistently great. Every once and a while, they miss the market, like I think they did with Max Payne 3.”
“Even games like Bully that didn’t have that wide of an appeal, but people loved it. It might not have been for everybody, but those who bought it loved it. And games like Manhunt, maybe a little too gruesome for a lot of people but really well crafted. And Rockstar took credit for LA Noire, but as you know, that was a third party studio. And Red Dead was a Capcom game, if you remember, the very first one- and these guys improved it after getting the rights to it.
“So I think everything they touch turns out excellent. It’s just hard to forecast commercial performance for newer properties. But this thing has an audience. The last Red Dead did 14 million, I believe. So there are 14 million people since 2010, and 66 million people who played GTA. So 66 million people will absolutely give this a chance. So there’s an open question about how much this will sell, but there’s no question that it will be a phenomenal game. I would not take a bet on a Metascore below 90, and I would take a bet on a Metascore above 92 or 93, because Rockstar are that good.”
I’d go as far as to say that the games won’t even hit a 92 or 93- that’d be too low. Given the calibre and talent that modern Rockstar have, I’d say we are looking at a score of at least 95 for Red Dead Redemption 2. The game is set to launch on Xbox One and PS4 next Fall.
