(Image: ROCKSTAR )

Despite fans growing resentful at the lack of things to do in the online side of Red Dead Redemption 2, it's been a pretty good week for the games Publisher, Take-Two and by extension, developers Rockstar.

The headline news comes via Take-Two's most recent earnings report in which it was established that there has been 23 million shipments of Red Dead Redemption 2 so far - And an opening performance for Red Dead Online that is greater than what GTA Online managed when it first launched.

GamesIndustry.biz, a site dedicated to covering industry news reports that whilst Red Dead Redemption 2 drove the mainstay of the profit, it was Red Dead Online that perhaps offered the biggest surprise, as it was revealed that Red Dead Online is "trending ahead of how GTA Online was performing by the same point in its lifecycle."

In short, if you were to compare the opening profit of both GTA Online and Red Dead Online, it's the cowboy sequel that is performing the best for the company.

"It's a beta offering, of course. And it's gone about as we had expected," said Take-Two CEO, Strauss Zelnick.

"What's really exciting is that during December, combined monthly active users of Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Online took Rockstar to a new record. We feel great about it. Obviously, the experiences are a work in progress, and there will be a lot more content to come.

"But in terms of comparing where Grand Theft Auto Online was in terms of engagement at this stage of the game, versus where Red Dead Online at this stage in the game, Red Dead Online has more engagement, is doing better and has a lot more early traction. Which we think is very encouraging."

The good news didn't end there though, with Zelnick also adding:

"The title shipped more in its first 15 days than the first Red Dead Redemption shipped in eight years, and it has the highest opening weekend of any title in entertainment history of any sort - $725 million.

"So we do feel really good about it. Naturally, it's doing much better than expected and we had high expectations. It is very hard to call where we'll go from here, other than to say we're thrilled with what it has achieved so far."

The question now remains, how will Rockstar and Take-Two build on this success, especially at a time of growing animosity at a lack of new content or updates for Red Dead Online.

According to Twitter user @TezFunz2 - who is a great source of info for all things Rockstar Games if you wanted a hint on someone to follow on Twitter - more content could be coming in July, based on the comments/hints made during the Take-Two earnings call.

"Take2 expects RDO micro-transactions sales to blow up during 2019 Q4 (July – September) and to accelerate from that point," explained TezFunz2.

"This looks like official confirmation of when to see new content but this is more like expectations anyone could come up with."

Whilst it's possible that fans could be drip fed smaller updates, it seems like in the meantime most of the updates will likely come in the form of offers or requests for feedback, as we've seen thsi week.

A notice sent midweek and availale on the Rockstar Newswire currently, reads:

"In the Red Dead Online Beta, Tonics can provide relief to the ill and injured and boost the health, Dead Eye skills and stamina of riders out risking their lives on the frontier. Stay well supplied with a combination of Health Cures, Bitters, Snake Oil and Miracle Tonics to stay at your best and take advantage of 25% off discounts this week to stockpile for unforeseen emergencies.

"Got thoughts on the use of Tonics and Provisions in the Red Dead Online Beta? We want to hear from you – tell us which ones you find most helpful, and any other constructive notes for us to consider."

So it looks as though we could be waiting some time, before those more significant updates to Red Dead Online arrive. Thankfully, we at least have some clues as to what those major new additions to the game could look like.

In the months prior we've seen several leaked references to future content as well as a commitment from Rockstar to address player concerns when it comes to Red Dead 2 Online griefing.

If you've missed this news previously, you can read more about these leaked future content updates, just below the next image.

'LEAKED' MULTIPLAYER CONTENT

Before Red Dead Online launched dataminers managed to find references to what appears to be future content for the games online mode.

This includes Properties, Adversary Modes and Vehicles to quickly name drop three key features.

When it comes to Properties the only information found to date has simply been placeholders, of which there are ten.

As for the vehicles it's mainly focused on several forms of wagons, from 'supply' to 'utility' and even a 'War' wagon.

But again, a lot of this content is listed simply as a placeholder, so we might imagine that when Rockstar say they're working on "additional Red Dead Online gameplay content" it's this sort of content they're referring to.

Especially since they'll be well versed in how best to release this content given the teams knowledge with the continually successful GTA 5 Online mode.

ANTI GRIEFING FEATURES

Griefing is a problem in all online games in truth and Red Dead Redemption 2 fans have noted quite vocally how they're not fully on board with the current system.

One such rant on the games vocal Sub-Reddit reads:

Well, I started out as full honor; however, due to having to defend myself against griefers I am now at max dishonor. One thing that really pisses me off is that there is literally no way to defend yourself without being dishonorable-- which is absolute contrary to the embodiment of the 'Cowboy' persona. For example, I thought maybe I could hogtie someone in order to escape their constant abuse, but even that is dishonorable. I don't understand how the 'honorable' thing to do is go AFK until the person has killed you three times then Parlay. That IS GRIEFING. Rockstar is telling us that in order for us to keep our honor we have to sacrifice our time and just wait for them to kill us? It's a horrible system and doesn't allow for the honorable retribution that is needed. I kind of wish you could drop off 'criminals' in Jail as you could in single player-- something is needed because this system is broke (AF) and frustrating as hell.

It's just one example of players angered by the action of griefers. Thankfully Rockstar has said they're working on a solution, telling fans:

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"We have been poring through incoming community input and suggestions and are working on updates for early 2019 to address many popular bits of feedback including some new anti-griefing measures in the works and other updates to improve gameplay balance."

Exactly when we'll see these new anti-griefing measures isn't clear, but we suspect it will be pretty high on the list of features Rockstar will want to fix sooner, rather than later.