Some Red Dead Redemption 2 fans have fueled rumors that a Mexico expansion may be coming to the game. On the RDR2 subreddit, several posts have been made discussing changes to the unfinished Mexico section of the game that is typically inaccessible. With the dearth of content for both Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online, it’s not hard to imagine why players would want to cling to hope that Rockstar Games is planning a big expansion. However, that’s almost certainly not the case.
Why are the rumors about a Red Dead Redemption 2 Mexico expansion wrong?
The most recent rumor concerning a Red Dead Redemption 2 Mexico expansion (or an RDR1 remake for those with even higher hopes) is the claim that there is more plant life in Nuevo Paraiso (the in-game name for Mexico). Several posts (this one in particular) on the RDR2 and Red Dead Online subreddit have posited the theory that a supposed increase in plants in the Mexico region somehow means that Rockstar is working on it.
Of course, this is the result of two things:
- Wanting to see hope where there is none.
- Having a fundamental misunderstanding of how game development works.
No matter how good it is and how much fans love it, Rockstar has pretty much moved on from RDR2 and Red Dead Online. The latter isn’t the money maker that GTA Online is, and there’s no reason for them to give it massive support. The major creatives at Rockstar left the company, and since then, it’s shown that it’s all about maximizing profit. If there were going to be a significant expansion for RDR2, it wouldn’t take four years to make, even with how slowly Rockstar produces games. An RDR1 remake might take that long, but let’s face it, that’s a lot of work when the studio could just sell Shark Cards. That’s what happened with Grand Theft Auto V’s single-player DLC, and that’s almost certainly the case here.
These Reddit posts also seem to think there’s just one game world that Rockstar updates live. Why would Rockstar slowly add material to Mexico, a region that players can’t get to normally? Wouldn’t a major expansion release as one update? Yes, it would. Also, the users who supported this theory seem to think each plant is hand-crafted and placed lovingly on the desert floor. They’re not. Plants are brushed onto the terrain, and there’s a certain degree of procedural generation for fauna.
Unfortunately, there’s no indication that Rockstar is making a Mexico expansion for Red Dead Redemption 2, an RDR1 remake, or that RDR 3 is in the works. A new project in the series will inevitably come someday, but for now, we can consider it to be largely dormant while Rockstar works on other projects. Fortunately, the studio is releasing GTAV for the third console generation in the row, so at least we have that to look forward to.
