Leaked Red Dead 2 Image Turns Out to Be Upcoming MMO Wild West Online

Since it’s announcement, fans have been clamoring for any information they can get their hands on for Red Dead Redemption 2. An image recently appeared online stating that it was the first leaked screenshot of Rockstar’s upcoming Wild West sequel, but in reality, it belonged to another upcoming game called Wild West Online.

It won’t star Will Smith as Jim West, but the upcoming Kickstarter project is set to be an open-world PvP MMO. Obviously set in the old west, the company behind Wild West Online hope to launch their $250,000 Kickstarter for the project at the end of the month, with stretch goals tied to additional funding.

It not hard to see why fans on the GTA forum thought that the upcoming MMO was a screenshot from RDR2, as they certainly look similar. The newly formed 612 games stated it was intentional though, as they stated in an interview with PCGamer that they were tired of waiting for Red Dead to come to the PC.

“There’s an audience for this that just wasn’t being served on PC,” Bugaj explained. “So we wanted to make this big, open Wild West world with a bit of a twist that, like the best MMOs, is a place where people can really live in.”

The confusion has, at the very least, provided some sweet free advertising for 612 games and the MMO, as the indie project has very lofty goals in its Kickstarter. One of Wild West Online’s most interesting stretch goals lies at 1.75 million dollars. When reached the developers will add train robberies as part of a “season one” update.

Interestingly enough, Wild West Online is slated for release at the exact same time as Red Dead Redemption 2, fall of 2017. The kicker is that no PC version of Red Dead has been announced, and is the whole inspiration behind its competitor making the game, so Wild West Online may corner the market.

It’s hard to imagine that Rockstar will take that lying down, especially after the success they saw with GTA: Online. Be sure to check back to the site for updates in the meantime as Wild West Online’s official site states more will be revealed in approximately four days.