Red Dead Redemption 3 'California Gold Rush' goes down a treat with fans

Rockstar Games hasn't even formally announced Red Dead Redemption 3 yet, but that hasn't stopped fans of the Wild West series from speculating on what they’d like to see in the next game.

While Rockstar Games has acknowledged that we’ll get Red Dead Redemption 3 at some point, at the time of writing we don't know what story it will tell, which characters it will feature or when it will be set. All we know for sure is that it will arrive after Grand Theft Auto VI.

Check out the Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer below!

The original Red Dead Redemption which was released in 2010 and starred John Marston set in the early 1900s during the decline of the American frontier. As for Red Dead Redemption 2 (which is a prequel), it’s set just before the events of the 2010 game and stars Arthur Morgan of the Dutch van de Linde gang, a group in which John Marston was also a member.

Before now, fans have speculated what they’d like to see in Red Dead Redemption 3 from the possibility of a female protagonist to gunslinger Landon Ricketts being a perfect protagonist. Now, fans on Reddit have been discussing the potential period for Red Dead Redemption 3 with the California gold rush taking centre stage.

The California Gold Rush was between 1848 to 1855 after gold was discovered in Coloma, the United States by James W. Marshall. As you can imagine, corporate greed was a motivation and while it helped to power the economy in the United States, it also had a severely negative impact on the Native American residents which caused a population decline due to disease, starvation and not least, genocide.

“Thoughts on Red Dead Redemption 3 taking place during the California Gold Gush,” said DodgerCoug, kicking off the discussion on the Reddit forum. “A completely new story and map set at the end of the Gold Rush in 1855.”

DodgerCoug listed the likes of the entire map of the West Coast (plus Tijuana), the rise of immigration and the part it played in the gold rush and the development of railroads. As well as the ruthless outlaws and vigilante justice, the negative impact on Native Americans and much more. It’s certainly an intriguing but equally tragic period to explore.

“I kinda love this,” exclaimed DirtBagFace. “I really like this for lots of reasons. It has a lot of elements from my own pet RDR3 idea, which has a focus on California areas and more Native Americans,” replied ArthurDartLazos.

“It needs to absolutely have nothing to do with the Dutch van der Linde gang in my opinion. That story is played out and done, it's time to start a new one,” suggested Troy242426. However, some on the thread made very valid points regarding the period in which slavery was prominent. It’s perhaps a subject that may prove to be too controversial, even for Rockstar Games.

Red Ded Redemption and its sequel are available now on modern platforms. As for GTA VI, it’s expected to be released on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in 2025.