Red Dead Redemption finally playable on PC after 13 years

Red Dead Redemption is genuinely one of the best games of its generation, allowing players to live the best fantasy wild west life.

Released in 2010 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the follow-up to 2004’s Red Dead Revolver was an instant success for Rockstar Games. On PS3 and 360, Red Dead Redemption earned scores of 95 on Metacritic, cementing its place as one of the best video games ever.

Check out the Red Dead Redemption trailer below!

Red Dead Redemption would get even better for fans on Xbox, thanks to the excellent backwards compatibility feature for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, looking extra gorgeous in 4K at a stable 30 frames-per-second.

What’s more, Red Red Redemption has been introduced to a new audience this month with a re-release on PlayStation 4 with PS5 backward compatibility and for the first time in the series' history, arriving on a Nintendo platform with the Switch.

Yet, some fans felt aggrieved at the launch price of £40/$50 USD for a game that is not only 13 years old but has no notable improvements, other than an improved resolution. That being said, it is a great thing that we can now play Red Dead Redemption on the go, courtesy of the Nintendo Switch.

When quizzed on justifying the RRP of the Red Dead Redemption re-release, a game that included the Undead Nightmare expansion, but removed its multiplayer mode, CEO of Rockstar Games parent company, Take-Two Interactive, Strauss Zelnic stated that the price is ‘commercially accurate’.

Despite the apparent controversy of the re-release, Red Dead Redemption immediately shot to the top of the PlayStation Store charts, indicating that perhaps many fans weren't aggrieved by its price as first thought.

Unfortunately, despite Red Dead Redemption coming to PS4 and Nintendo Switch recently, a PC release was ignored once more. This baffled many fans, as its sequel arrived on PC in 2019, a year after its console launch. If we were to be optimistic, we can only hope that Rockstar Games has plans to release RDR on PC at some point in the near future.

However, until Red Dead Redemption may or may not arrive on PC, there is another way by unofficial means and it's via emulation. Other than playing classic video games of yesteryear, emulation can bring current games to PC such as Nintendo exclusives with the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and soon, Tears of the Kingdom.

As reported by DSOgaming, the emulation software that can work wonders is Yuzu and Ryujinx, and thanks to this software, the Nintendo Switch version of Red Dead Redemption is now playable on PC. What’s more, despite the PS4 and Switch versions being locked at 30fps, the PC-emulated version can benefit from an unlocked framerate.

That being said, it is reported that despite the unlocked framerate, the emulated Switch version is proving to be an imperfect port with frequent drops below 60fps. Sure, on paper 60fps may appear to be better than 30fps, but if that framerate is constantly dipping and increasing, it can become noticeable for some. Thankfully, Ryujinx has released a hotfix for the reported issues, so the experience may improve in the near future.

It’s worth keeping in mind that Red Dead Redemption was already playable on PC via emulation from its Xbox 360 version, but it is hoped that the Nintendo Switch port would be superior. DSOgaming recommends sticking with the 360 version for now, which has a native 4K and can reach over 60fps, as long as you have the required PC hardware.

That being said, we must state that emulation is most certainly a legal grey area and we do not endorse the software. Red Dead Redemption is out now on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch.