Why Red Dead Redemption 2 Never Received an Official GOTY Edition

Red Dead Redemption 2 is often considered one of the best video games of all time, something that hasn’t changed despite its surprising lack of support for modern hardware. Indeed, while countless gamers would undoubtedly be willing to shell out an extra $10, $20, or even more for a current-gen version of Red Dead 2, Rockstar has seemingly ignored such endeavors, leaving the game more or less unaltered since its 2018 release.

Perhaps gamers should have seen this coming, though, as Red Dead 2 never got a Game of the Year edition or similar re-release. Game of the Year editions, while not as common as they were during the 7th and 8th console generations, are still a prominent staple in the games industry. Typically, they are bundles of a game with any post-launch or Deluxe Edition content included, used to leverage a successful title’s reputation or popularity. Rockstar never released such an edition for Red Dead Redemption 2, however, and there are good, if somewhat disappointing, reasons for this.

Not That It Really Matters, but Red Dead Redemption 2 Never Actually Won Game of the Year

One might be quick to point out a seemingly obvious reason why Red Dead Redemption 2 never received a GOTY edition of some sort: it never actually won Game of the Year at the 2018 Game Awards. That honor would go to Sony Santa Monica’s soft God of War reboot instead. But this is something of a moot point, since Red Dead Redemption 2 won a bevy of other Game of the Year awards from different outlets and organizations. While Keighley’s Game Awards is by far the most popular of its kind, it doesn’t have a monopoly on the concept.

But regardless, there’s no sacred code stipulating that a game needs to have won some particular accolade to earn a Game of the Year edition. Take a walk through your local retro games store, and you’ll see proof of this: innumerable video games from around 2005–2015 are emblazoned with a “Game of the Year Edition” title, even if they are relatively obscure or poorly received.

Game of the Year Edition is really just another term for “Legendary Edition” or something similar. It’s meant to convey higher value than the original release, either through extra content or enhancements of some sort. Having said that, Red Dead Redemption 2 never got a Legendary/Special/Anniversary Edition either. It follows that the presence or lack of any GOTY awards has little to nothing to do with why Red Dead 2 doesn’t have a Game of the Year Edition.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Never Got Any DLC to Include in a GOTY Re-Release

The more likely, and more depressing, reason why Red Dead Redemption 2 never got a Game of the Year Edition is its notable lack of single-player DLC. The only substantial post-launch content the game ever received was for Red Dead Online, and the nature of Rockstar’s online ecosystem doesn’t exactly lend itself to physical releases or specialized bundles. This separates Red Dead Redemption 2 from its predecessor, which got a Game of the Year Edition in 2011, which included the Undead Nightmare DLC.

As many Red Dead fans have long lamented, there is no Undead Nightmare equivalent in Red Dead Redemption 2, and therefore, there’s nothing substantive to include in a Game of the Year Edition, or any similar special versions. This is something that Red Dead 2 has in common with GTA 5, which also received no single-player DLC nor a subsequent GOTY release. However, it was re-released twice, with the first next-gen upgrade issuing meaningful changes like a new first-person mode. DLC is probably out of the picture for Red Dead Redemption 2, but perhaps Rockstar could release a similarly enhanced edition, with some new bells and whistles, at some point down the road.