Racist Red Dead Redemption 2 Hackers Are Taking Over The Game

Racist Red Dead Redemption 2 Hackers Are Taking Over The Game
Images via Rockstar Games

Written by 

Tom Chapman

Published 

23rd Mar 2022 11:30

Things are going even more wild in the Wild West, as a group of hackers have ridden into town and taken over Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption 2. 2018's open-world Western is held as one of the greatest games of all time, and with a suitably massive adventure to unravel, some of us are still finding new secrets. Unfortunately, not all of them are good.

Rockstar has tried to create an inclusive and diverse world that steers away from the ugly side of racism in 1899, but now, hackers have held the title hostage and added their own racist content. While racism is an unfortunately a common theme in Red Dead Online, one streamer reports it's now taken over the single-player campaign of the main game.

How Have Racists Taken Over Red Dead Redemption 2?

Red Dead Redemption 2 Racism
Click to enlarge
Twitter

According to streamer MiltonTPike1 (via Dexerto), hackers have taken over this lawless land and are flooding Red Dead with racism. "I stopped playing Red Dead Online on-stream because script-kids would non-stop teleport streamers (like me) to one area, change everyone's name to the N-word, dress up as KKK members, and burn/hang people, with all other players forced to sit and watch," said MiltonTPike1.

If this wasn't bad enough, they added: "I found out today... that I [also] can't even play Red Dead Redemption 2 *SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN* because apparently, script-kids can now bombard you with malformed multiplayer invites which disconnect you and send you back to the main menu. Why does it work? Because it's impossible to block multiplayer invites."

Race and Red Dead are awkwardly tied, and you might remember when one player went viral for killing racists in-game. Even then, there were accusations they actually set it up themselves, which is also an uncomfortable situation. There have been similar problems in GTA V and GTA Online, but given how massive the player bases are, it's thankfully a pretty rare issue. Still, it doesn't stop it from being a problem for those affected.

 

Is Rockstar Trying To Fix Red Dead's Racism?

Red Dead Racism
Click to enlarge
Rockstar Games

Although the developer hasn't responded to these claims, the issue could be worse than we thought. This isn't the first time hackers have done this sort of thing, but according to Rockstar insider Tez2, there's literally nothing you can do to avoid these issues until Rockstar does something about it.

In the replies, Tez2 explained, "Unfortunately, there's not much you could do without Rockstar intervening. The whole 'dress as KKK members' happened before and Rockstar addressed it with a background update. Surprised it still happens. However, Red Dead Online background updates are no longer as frequent as they used to be." Rockstar will presumably try and tackle this as soon as it can, but for the time being, racist Red Dead hackers are leaving a nasty taste in all our mouths.

 

Tom Chapman
About the author
Tom Chapman
Tom is Trending News Editor at GGRecon, with an NCTJ qualification in Broadcast Journalism and over seven years of experience writing about film, gaming, and television. With bylines at IGN, Digital Spy, Den of Geek, and more, Tom’s love of horror means he's well-versed in all things Resident Evil, with aspirations to be the next Chris Redfield.
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