Bottom line: For those who have been living under a rock for the last week: a little game called Red Dead Redemption 2 has been getting a lot of attention. It’s a console exclusive, meaning some PS4 and Xbox One fans have relished the chance to get one over PC owners. But, like GTA V, could the best version of RDR2 be the one that arrives on our favorite platform?

2010’s Red Dead Redemption was also a brilliant game, and it too could only be enjoyed by PlayStation and Xbox owners—though it can now be played on PC using the PlayStation Now service. With GTA V holding the title of ‘best-selling game of all time’ in the US, and it proving especially popular on the PC, we expected Rockstar to announce that RDR2 wouldn’t have the same platform exclusivity as its predecessor, but so far there’s been no mention of it coming to PC. So, are we being denied what’s been called one of the best open-world games of all time? Or do we just need to be patient and wait for the inevitable?

Evidence of an in-development PC version arrived last June, when the LinkedIn profile of an unnamed Rockstar dev, who previously worked on GTA V and L.A. Noire, listed the PC as one of RDR2’s platforms.

But the strongest indication of a PC version was recently discovered by Rockstar Intel, which reports that the game’s companion app contains files that reference the PC and its graphical settings. There are mentions of temporal anti-aliasing, water reflection resolution, and shadow and particle quality, along with files that include the words “pcversion.”

With such a massive market eager to snap up the game, it should be a matter of when, not if, RDR2 will move beyond consoles. It might be that Rockstar wants to squeeze everything it can from GTA online, which continues to make a fortune for the company, before bringing Red Dead 2 and its upcoming online component to the PC.

GTA V didn’t arrive on the PC until two years after its launch on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Hopefully, and more than likely, we won’t be waiting quite as long for Rockstar’s newest flagship product. But for the impatient among us, RDR2 is one of the best reasons to buy a console right now.

We’ve had another tantalizing hint that Red Dead Redemption 2 will be coming to the PC after some enterprising soul rifled through the guts of the game’s companion app and found references to a PC version.

Rockstar Intel highlighted this particular bit of detective work, peeking inside the files of the Red Dead Redemption 2 companion app and spotting several references to a PC version and related settings. These include the following bits of technical jargon:

• PARAM_companionAutoConnectIpPC
• PARAM_Oculus
• CommandIsPcVersion(void) 000000000166A12C

So yes, there’s also a mention of Oculus in here, pointing towards potential VR excitement. Various other references to graphics details that could pertain to a PC port are also abound.

Of course, we’d be foolish to jump to conclusions based on a few mentions of PC here and there in the app. And, it’s true that in places there are other references to a PC version of the companion app for desktop computers, for example a mention of a sign-in for the ‘PC_app’.

Which could mean that all these references simply point to a PC version of the companion app, rather than an actual full-blown port of the game for the platform. Although equally, it could be the case that both of the above are in the pipeline.

Hopeful hints

We can but remain hopeful for a PC incarnation of Red Dead Redemption 2, and we’ve certainly seen a number of hints that it is indeed in the cards – from the LinkedIn profile of a programmer who previously worked at Rockstar showing that he’d been working on a PC port of the game, to a leaked retail listing suggesting a 2019 launch.

So, Rockstar might move faster than it did with Grand Theft Auto V, which eventually came to the PC after its console release.

Red Dead Redemption 2 was released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One just a few short days ago, on October 26.

Via PC Gamer