Red Dead Redemption 2 is an epic tale of life in America at the dawn of the modern age.

America, 1899. The end of the wild west era has begun as lawmen hunt down the last remaining outlaw gangs. Those who will not surrender or succumb are killed.

After a robbery goes badly wrong in the western town of Blackwater, Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang are forced to flee. With federal agents and the best bounty hunters in the nation massing on their heels, the gang must rob, steal and fight their way across the rugged heartland of America in order to survive. As deepening internal divisions threaten to tear the gang apart, Arthur must make a choice between his own ideals and loyalty to the gang who raised him.

Built from the ground up for the latest hardware, Red Dead Online blends the classic multiplayer of the original Red Dead Redemption with the best of everything we have learned since then about creating deep multiplayer experiences. The result is something completely new and fun, and an experience that will continue to expand and evolve over time as we gain valuable feedback from our community in the Beta period.

Now that everyone has had a chance over the past month to experience the story of Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang in Red Dead Redemption 2, it is almost time to begin the beta period for Red Dead Online. Early access to the Red Dead Online beta begins tomorrow on Tuesday, November 27, working up to full public access on Friday, November 30.

Built from the ground up for the latest hardware, Red Dead Online blends the classic multiplayer of the original Red Dead Redemption with the best of everything we have learned since then about creating deep multiplayer experiences. The result is something completely new and fun, and an experience that will continue to expand and evolve over time.

With the gameplay of Red Dead Redemption 2 as its foundation, Red Dead Online transforms the vast and deeply detailed landscapes, cities, towns and habitats of Red Dead Redemption 2 into a new, living online world ready to be shared by multiple players. Create and customize your character, tailor your abilities to suit your play style and head out into a new frontier full of things to experience.

Explore the world solo or with friends. Form or join a Posse to ride with up to seven players; gather around the fire at your Camp; head out hunting or fishing; visit bustling towns; battle enemy gangs and attack their hideouts; hunt for treasure; take on missions and interact with familiar characters from across the five states; or fight against other outlaws in both spontaneous skirmishes and pitched set-piece battles; compete with other players or whole Posses in open world challenges and much more.

The launch of the Red Dead Online Beta is the first step in what will be a continually expanding and dynamic world, and the beta period will allow us to deal with the inevitable turbulence of launching any online experience of this size and scale.

During this process, we will be looking to our dedicated community to help us report and fix problems, share ideas, and assist in shaping the future of the full Online experience. As with all of our releases, we will strive to make the launch of Red Dead Online the best it can possibly be, and we ask that the community share that spirit with us over the next weeks and months.

To help us ease into the beta and to mitigate major issues, we will begin the early access period starting Tuesday, November 27 at 8:30am EST, and gradually scale the player base up to full access beginning on Friday, November 30. This will help ensure that our servers can handle a steadily growing volume of concurrent players in the early hours and first days of the Beta and hopefully reduce the likelihood of any server crashes during the launch week as we get things up and running. 

Full rollout details are as follows:

• Tuesday, November 27: All Red Dead Redemption 2: Ultimate Edition owners. Please note, players who purchased the physical Ultimate Edition must redeem the Ultimate Edition code in the packaging to be eligible.
• Wednesday, November 28: All players who played Red Dead Redemption 2 on October 26th according to our data.
• Thursday, November 29: All players who played Red Dead Redemption 2 between October 26th to October 29th according to our data.
• Friday, November 30: All players who own Red Dead Redemption 2.

The Red Dead Online Beta will be available to anyone who owns Red Dead Redemption 2 on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One starting Friday, November 30. When booting up Red Dead Redemption 2 and arriving to the title menu, you will see an option in the top right of the screen to select Online.

Red Dead Redemption 2 will be released on October 26, 2018.