Red Dead Redemption: John And Arthur Collection price leaves fans disgusted

The Red Dead Redemption series is truly one of the developer's Rockstar Games’ crown jewels and that’s an impressive feat considering that it has GTA in its back catalogue.

The Red Dead series first began all the way back in 2004 with Red Dead Revolver for PS2 and Xbox. Sure, Red Dead Revolver is a very linear game, but its wild west antics that featured a protagonist clearly inspired by the legendary Clint Eastwood would help to lay the foundation for what was to come in the series.

Check out the Red Dead Redemption trailer below!

Enter Red Dead Redemption in 2010 for PS3 and Xbox 360, starring the at times ruthless but endlessly charming John Marston. Set during the decline of the American Frontier in 1911, RDR told the story of John attempting to live an honest family life and leave the outlaw Van der Linde gang behind, led by the ruthless Dutch. However, as you can imagine, John’s attempts to live an honest life don't go according to plan, after all, this is a Rockstar Games title.

Then in 2018, Red Dead Redemption 2 was released, but rather than being a sequel as the name suggests, this was in fact a prequel to the 2010 game. In this new story, we played Arthur Morgan, knee-deep in Dutch van der Linde gang shenanigans, which also included John Marston. RDR2 was a prime example of how a sequel should be done. While its story was equally as immersive as its predecessor, its world was bigger and better with endless activities and it looks gorgeous too, even to this very day.

Recently, Red Dead Redemption was re-released on PlayStation 4 with PS5 backwards compatibility. It was also released on the Nintendo Switch with the added appeal of playing this absolute classic on the go.

Yet, some fans were disappointed that the re-release of RDR was pretty much a basic port with its multiplayer removed, unlike the backwards-compatible version on Xbox, especially with it launching with a £40/$50 USD RRP. A price at which Take-Two Interactive CEO believes is ‘commercially accurate’. Though the re-release does come bundled with the Undead Nightmare expansion, at least.

So, to capitalise on the re-release of Red Dead Redemption it would make sense for a bundle featuring both games to be available, right? That’s exactly what Rockstar Games has done, but much like the price of the re-released RDR, fans are not happy. At the time of writing, the RDR and RDR2 digital bundle on Xbox has a whopping price of £86.73/$99.97 USD.

Granted this bundle is selling at its full price for both games, and includes the Undead Nightmare expansion as well as Red Dead Online. It’s also worth keeping in mind that both games are regularly found in sales and will at some point, be available to purchase at a much reduced price. For example, I picked up RDR and Undead Nightmare for about £10 a few years ago and I’ve seen RDR2 sell for around £20 to £25. So it may be unwise to take the plunge at this price, despite how great both games are.

Still, fans on social media have voiced their disgust at the price of the Red Dead Redemption bundle at its maximum RRP.

“Only $100!? What a steal!” said a sarcastic @XeoMafia replying to a tweet from Idle Sloth. “I love both games, but it should be closer to $60 if we're being honest,” said @TheLife0fJustin. This seems to be a common theme on the thread.

One Twitter follower highlighted that the bundle is also available on PlayStation, with a discount for PS Plus subscribers. “$66.99 on the PlayStation Store for PS+ members (which is still too much imo),” exclaimed @kayjune.

At the end of the day, we can all argue whether a product offers value for money until the cows come home (whatever that means), but the value is subjective to the individual. Regardless, it still may be worth waiting for a sale if you want to pick up both Red Dead Redemption games at some point.

Red Dead Redemption is available now on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, whereas its sequel is available on PC, PlayStation and Xbox.