A few days ago, Rockstar announced that Red Dead Redemption 2 wouldn’t see a release until October 26, 2018, a far cry from its originally slated release date of fall 2017. This is also after a first delay came announcing the game would be released in Spring of 2018. Considering the massive success of Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar may just be taking their time to make sure they do this one right.

Rockstar hasn’t given many reasons for the numerous delays on Red Dead Redemption 2, and at this point, it is getting a little tiresome. The last game that the company released was Grand Theft Auto 5 in 2013, five years ago, and since then, Rockstar has been happy to simply reap the benefits of online play and microtransactions. However, Rockstar might be the only company in the world that has the luxury of enjoying a five year hiatus from development while still being hugely successful.

Red Dead Redemption sold 15 million units while receiving piles of acclaim. Three years later, Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto V, the most successful game of all time, selling 85 million copies over the course of its life. In this way, Rockstar operates much like the biggest Hollywood producers, taking its time to produce a massive blockbuster hit and not worrying about smaller titles. While it’s unlikely Red Dead Redemption 2 will live up to the success of Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar is probably anticipating a pretty large payday.

As a series, Red Dead has always had a strong reputation. However, it was after Rockstar bought the rights to the series and rebranded it with Red Dead Redemption that the series flourished. The original title, Red Dead Revolver, was produced by Capcom and was a somewhat cartoonish spaghetti-western that followed a shoot-em up style with RPG elements, making it similar to many Capcom titles such as Dead Rising. Following Rockstar’s meteoric rise from the Grand Theft Auto series, though, they took the series in a much different direction, treating it Grand Theft Auto but with cowboys.

This model has proved far more profitable for the series, and with the huge success of Rockstar’s other titles, it’s likely they will continue down the road of games all themed around the same style of play. While the heart of the series looks the same – bounty hunting, traveling the west, and earning cash – it’s the open-world elements that Rockstar is looking to capitalize on. We’ll have a chance to see what they’ve changed when it is released for the PS4 and Xbox One on October 26, 2018. Unless, of course, it gets delayed again.