Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser wanted to kill Niko Bellic at the end of GTA 4, and only stayed his hand because the studio was 'Full of fear' and the game didn't quite work with it

(Image credit: Rockstar)

Red Dead Redemption's ending—which, heads up, I am gonna spoil here—is famous for a reason. Gamers are a cosseted bunch, and it was (heck, it continues to be) very rare that an open world didn't stick you right back in the protagonist's boots after credits rolled, so you could go mop up whatever side quests and activities you hadn't done yet.

RDR bucked that expectation when it straight-up killed poor ol' John Marston at the end. Sure, you could still keep playing as his son Jack, but the guy you'd come to know and love over tens of hours of playtime was cold in the ground. It hit like a sledgehammer, and it's still tough to play through the game's ending even now.

Which makes a degree of sense, I suppose. There wasn't really anyone else in GTA 4 it would have made sense for you to play if Niko had carked it. His cousin Roman was… not really cut out for the gangster lifestyle, he had no kids, who was left? Brucie? Little Jacob? Actually, maybe a Jacob game would be kind of fun.

John Marston in Reality Redemption Overhaul Project for Red Dead Redemption — (Image credit: RockstarGames)

I can't help but think Rockstar probably just didn't feel quite confident enough to do something like kill your character when GTA 4 released. Sure, it had put out a whole bunch of games people loved—San Andreas is still, probably, my personal favourite GTA—but it was GTA 4 that really established its narrative bonafides. I can't help but think the plaudits it got for GTA 4's story gave its writers the boost they needed to feel confident enough to waste John Marston in 2010.

After all, Houser does recall that "people were really upset and angry at us for doing it [in RDR] because they didn't think it was going to happen.

"It was a big risk from a technical perspective for us to do that," says Houser, "and then it worked. So I think that was something that was very… full of fear [for Rockstar], and it worked out okay."

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One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

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