Red Dead Online is the multiplayer mode of Red Dead Redemption 2 and a completely separate experience that shares some similarities with GTA Online:
- You need the base game to access it
- No content is shared between them (aside from the obvious like map and weapons)
- Is listed and marketed as a separate game on the developer site (https://www.rockstargames.com/reddeadonline/) even if is part of the base game
This can be corroborated with a quote from Game Designer Imran Sarwar on IGN:
There are a few reasons for [not releasing RDO alongside RDR2 single-player experience]. The first is that even though Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online share the same gameplay mechanics and geography, we see them essentially as separate products that will grow and evolve independently of each other.
I see this as the same problem of GTA V vs GTA Online so I want to request some edits:
- red-dead-redemption-2 is left as-is
- red-dead-redemption-2-online is renamed to red-dead-online
- Questions with red-dead-redemption-2-online get the red-dead-redemption-2 tag removed (currently, none of the online questions apply to the single player mode)
I know that there are not a lot of questions for RDO, but I feel that this might get problematic in the future.