10 Things You Didn't Know About Red Dead Redemption

3. It Was Originally A Direct Sequel To Red Dead Revolver

It's no secret that Red Dead Redemption isn't the first Red Dead game, with Red Dead Revolver coming first all the way back in 2004. Originally, this started life under the guidance of publisher Capcom, who eventually got cold feet on the project and sold it off to Rockstar who helped polish the game up for launch.

That game, though, is wildly different from Redemption. Far more of a pastiche than a serious Western, the title was linear, with a focus on different Wild West stories in between bombastic shootouts. It wasn't a huge success, but there was clearly potential there, and naturally Rockstar's initial decision was to make a straight sequel, starring original protagonist Red Harlow, but this time bringing it more in line with the company's other franchises.

Rather quickly though this idea was thrown out in favour of a spiritual successor. The concept was going to be changed massively anyway, and it made sense to not have any self-imposed limitations when creating the Wild West game Rockstar wanted to make.