Red Dead Redemption prequel map leaks

When most people think of Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto is probably the first thing that comes to mind. The studio is also behind the popular Red Dead series. Gamers have been hopeful that the series would get another installment on the current-gen consoles, and it looks as though their wish might be granted.

Recently a map was leaked by a NeoGaf user, who claimed that it was for an upcoming Red Dead game, set before the events of Redemption. The map was quickly pulled down, but not before it could be saved, copied, and uploaded by many users. But since anyone can make a map and say that it's a leak, plenty of people have questioned its origins.

The guys over at Techradar reached out to a source that's said to be close to the game's development. According to their source, the map is legitimate. It's a "very recent" art direction for the map. If you take a look below, you can see how it matches up with the Red Dead Redemption map. It looks like we'll be heading a little to the northeast this time around.

What's really interesting is that there is no railroad on this map. This would lead us to believe that the game is not a direct sequel to Read Dead Redemption. Instead, it would have to be set prior to the events of that game. If it's set between the existing two games, that would make it some sort of Pre-Sequel, as we saw with Borderlands.

This is one of the first things we've really heard about an upcoming Red Dead title. Rockstar has been pretty quiet on the subject for years, aside from a few mentions about it being a "permanent franchise." Hopefully this means that they may be close to releasing some information, possible at E3 in June.