In a revealing interview that has captured the gaming community’s attention, Kris Roberts, a veteran developer who worked at Rockstar Games on the iconic Red Dead Redemption, has shared unprecedented details about the chaotic state of the game’s multiplayer mode at launch. The 2010 Western epic, widely regarded as one of the greatest video games ever made, apparently suffered from such severe technical problems that developers initially suspected they were under attack by hackers. Roberts’ candid revelations come at a particularly sensitive time, as Rockstar Games navigates another major security crisis surrounding the highly anticipated GTA 6.

Behind the Scenes of a Disastrous Launch

Speaking on the KIWI TALKZ podcast, Kris Roberts painted a vivid picture of the pandemonium that erupted when Red Dead Redemption’s multiplayer went live. The timing couldn’t have been worse for Roberts personally, as he had been summoned for jury duty in a criminal trial precisely when the game launched. “I was participating as a juror in a criminal trial, and someone was going to prison right around the time our project was releasing,” Roberts explained. “When Red Dead came out, the multiplayer mode was broken. Really completely broken.”

The severity of the bugs was so extreme and bizarre that the development team genuinely questioned whether external forces were at play. Roberts described scenes of utter chaos: players were riding chickens instead of horses, elderly NPC women were flying erratically across the map, and countless other inexplicable phenomena plagued the experience. “There were people riding chickens, old ladies flying all over the place, and all sorts of crazy things we had never seen before,” Roberts recounted. “At that moment, I thought to myself: ‘Have we been hacked? Are we being trolled? What is happening?'” The absurdity of these glitches led the entire team to believe that malicious actors had somehow compromised their game.

The Unexpected Source of the Chaos

After intensive investigation, the development team discovered that the source of all this mayhem was far more mundane than a sophisticated cyber attack. The culprit turned out to be a bug related to gold bags from the competitive multiplayer mode. For reasons that remained somewhat mysterious even to the developers, these gold bag items could somehow transfer into the free roam mode, where they would trigger cascading failures in numerous scripts throughout the multiplayer experience. This single bug created a domino effect that essentially broke the entire online component of the game.

Red Dead Redemption’s multiplayer eventually became a beloved feature, offering players the chance to explore the vast frontier with friends, engage in gang hideout missions, and compete in various competitive modes. However, the rocky launch serves as a reminder of the immense complexity involved in creating online gaming experiences, particularly during an era when always-online components were still relatively new territory for open-world games of this scale. Rockstar Games, despite its legendary status in the industry, was not immune to the technical challenges that have plagued countless multiplayer launches throughout gaming history.

Parallels to GTA 6 and Current Industry Challenges

Roberts’ revelations arrive at a remarkably prescient moment for Rockstar Games. The studio is currently dealing with significant security concerns surrounding GTA 6, which is scheduled for its “extended gameplay preview” debut on Netflix on August 27, 2026, followed by a YouTube release six hours later—marking an unprecedented collaboration between a gaming giant and a streaming platform. The timing of these historical anecdotes about Red Dead Redemption’s troubled launch has prompted speculation within the gaming community about potential similarities with GTA 6’s upcoming multiplayer component.

The stakes for GTA 6’s online mode could not be higher. GTA Online, the multiplayer component of GTA 5, has generated billions of dollars in revenue since its 2013 launch through microtransactions and continued content updates. It remains one of the most profitable entertainment products ever created, continuing to attract millions of players more than a decade after release. Any technical failures with GTA 6’s online component could have massive financial implications for Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar’s parent company. However, early indications suggest that Rockstar has learned from past experiences, as the multiplayer mode for GTA 6 is reportedly planned for release sometime after the main game launches on November 19, 2026, for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles—potentially a strategic decision to avoid repeating the Red Dead Redemption catastrophe.