Take-Two’s CEO tries to justify Red Dead Redemption on Switch, but fans aren’t buying it

Fans of Red Dead Redemption have slammed Take-Two and Rockstar Games for planning to charge $50 for a Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 port that won’t even have multiplayer.

The backlash has been loud ever since the announcement was made on Aug. 7, withTake-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick attempting to justify the price of the Switch version in an interview with IGN on Aug. 8. What Zelnick probably didn’t expect, however, was that he’d only make matters worse.

“That’s just what we believe is the commercially accurate price for it,” Zelnick told IGN. The $50 price tag is for the Red Dead Redemption and its zombie DLC Undead Nightmare bundle, which Zelnick described as “great value” for Switch and PS4 owners.

Fans of the game, though, found the pricing “comedically accurate” rather than “commercially accurate” as Zelnick said. Several players are willing to boycott the release until the bundle is cheaper.

Part of the reason Take-Two and Rockstar left Red Dead Redemption fans so angry is that the game is already playable on Xbox Series X in 4K and because Microsoft has backward compatibility, Red Dead Redemption has been playable on newer consoles since Xbox One. So it’s not like the title was unplayable once the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 became obsolete.

“I would’ve rathered them not do the port than sell this,” one fan wrote on Twitter. “It’s such a pointless and out-of-touch release, Take-Two has no clue,” another fan added.

Personally, I feel that fans are more than right to protest about this. I played the game back when I had an Xbox 360 in 2015 and recently bought a copy for Xbox Series X in January. I paid $5.99, so it’s outrageous that PS4 and Switch players will have to pay $50 for Red Dead Redemption and Undead Nightmare.

Red Dead Redemption will arrive on Aug. 17 in the Switch and Sony’s online stores, meaning Take-Two can still take a step back and reduce the price of those ports.