Fans mourn "death" of Red Dead Online in community "funeral"

Last night, Red Dead Online fans came together to mourn the "death" of Rockstar's online service via a community-run "funeral" in-game.

Tributes to the online component of Red Dead Redemption 2 poured in all over social media.

Players collectively dressed in black and gathered around the game's numerous graveyards.

The funeral for the live-service was announced last week to celebrate one year since the game was "abandoned" by Rockstar Games, with little new content added over the past 12 months.

The following day, Rockstar posted a lengthy update on the state of its live-service games, stating that it had moved development resources towards production of the next Grand Theft Auto title.

As a result, Red Dead Online would no longer receive "major themed content updates like in previous years", it said, and instead would simply highlight existing content and seasonal events.

Yet the cash-cow that is Grand Theft Auto Online will continue to receive major content updates in the run-up to the next game. Fans have long been frustrated by the disparity of support between GTA and Red Dead Online.

Roger Clark, the voice and performance actor for Red Dead Redemption 2’s protagonist Arthur Morgan, also acknowledged the funeral in a tweet.