Red Dead Redemption 2’s online mode is live, and players are unhappy with Red Dead Online’s cash and gold bar economy. They’re asking Rockstar Games for more money.
Red Dead Redemption 2 players started exploring the Wild West together with the launch of Red Dead Online’s beta earlier this week, and they were soon met with the cold, harsh reality of the game’s economy. Missions and multiplayer modes pay out a pittance, and many of Red Dead Online’s purchasable items, upgrades and customizations cost considerable amounts of money.
Some of the more egregious examples, players say, are customizations for simple items like your character’s starter pistol. As noted in a popular thread on Reddit, customizing the basic revolver to be all black costs a whopping 12 gold bars. By some estimates, it takes roughly eight hours of play in Red Dead Online to earn a single gold bar, which would make a simple-looking upgrade a huge time investment. Upgrading a rifle costs nearly twice the number of gold bars, and a fully decked-out tent can cost 112 gold bars.
And while buying horse insurance for your first horse is cheap (and essential), insurance for another horse will cost you multiple gold bars (the amount depends on the quality of said horse).
Gold bars are Red Dead Online’s premium and rarer currency. You can earn gold nuggets through gameplay, and earning 100 gold nuggets will net you one gold bar. Rockstar also plans to sell gold bars for real money at some point for “cosmetic items like Camp décor, or a special style for your weapons,” though the company hasn’t announced pricing.
Beyond gold bars is the matter of dollars and cents, and many players are blanching at the high cost of new weapons.
