It has been revealed today that Red Dead Redemption sold over 555,000 copies on release day in North America. It is safe to say that the game has exceeded many expectations, particularly that of analysts such as Michael Pachter who was skeptical as to whether the game could ever sell as well as Rockstar was hoping. If the PAL launch is as successful, which we expect it will be, VGChartz has estimated worldwide week one sales of around 1.2 - 1.3 million units.

Final week one results should be available next week, we'll let you know what the final results are then.

Data thanks to VGChartz.

Earlier this week we posted an article about the UK's second-largest supermarket chain ASDA not stocking Red Dead Redemption. It would appear that the rumors were in fact true. A member of The Sixth Axis contacted his local store late yesterday to find out if the game would be available from midnight, and was told that ASDA "won’t be stocking the game". When probing for a reason as to why the game wasn't available, he was told that the supermarket chain wanted to sell the game at a specially reduced launch price but were told they had to sell it for a minimum price. A staff member of The Sixth Axis also contacted two other stores, and the responses we're all both pretty similar - along the lines of "we don't have it in stock, we're not sure why".

Seem a little childish? Sure does. Can't sell it for the price you want, so you ignore the game completely.

So if your planning on purchasing Red Dead Redemption from ASDA in the UK today, might be a good idea to find an alternative supermarket chain or games store and pick-it up there.

Source: The Sixth Axis

Amazon UK has announced that Red Dead Redemption has become the biggest pre-order title of 2010. Chris Poad, Amazon UK's videogames director, said in a statement:

"This is undoubtedly the most hotly anticipated videogame of the year so far. Demand has risen significantly over the last week as excitement and buzz around the game has built, making it one of the most successful titles we have seen on Amazon.co.uk this year before it has even been released."

The game has been receiving stellar reviews across the board, and its safe to say it is going to continue to sell rather well over the coming weeks. Congratulations to Rockstar San Diego, Rockstar NYC, and all contributors on a job done extremely well!

Source: GameSpy

Move over North American gamers, your UK and Australian counterparts now have their hands on Red Dead Redemption too. The game should now be available in all PAL regions, unless your planning to purchase it from ASDA, in which case it might be a good idea to find an alternative supplier...

If you haven't already, head out and pick up your copy of the game that critics everywhere are calling "the biggest selling game of the year so far" and unleash your inner cowboy.

Red Dead Redemption is now out in North America!

If you have become obsessed with the previews of Red Dead Redemption's soundtrack, we've added Red Dead Revolver's soundtrack to Red Dead Watch. Utilizing the awesome music service Grooveshark, we've been putting together a playlist of the songs from Red Dead Revolver over the past few days. The great thing about Grooveshark is that they have an application for most mobile phones and the apps will allow you to listen to the music offline if you don't have 3G in your area. If you're going to a midnight launch event early, you may want to get some of Revolver's tracks on your phone to get you into the mood!

Listen now: Red Dead Watch | Grooveshark

If there is one thing we as a Rockstar fansite love seeing, it's the mainstream media showing Rockstar some well deserved respect. Someone who has just made it into our books as an amazing writer is Seth Schiesel of The New York Times, who this week payed homage to Rockstar in his review of Red Dead Redemption. Not only did he praise the game, calling it a 'tour de force', he also praised Rockstar for being the only game developer to willingly focus on the real world rather than mythical creatures and fantasized battlefields.

His review conclusion is something of pure quality, and can be found below:

"Of all the world’s game developers, only Rockstar would even dream of a passage of such relevant hilarity. No other game developer has been so willing, and quite so able, to riff on the real world rather than sticking to elves or dragons or aliens or fantasized battlefields.

In the more than 1,100 articles I have written for this newspaper since 1996, I have never before called anything a tour de force. Yet there is no more succinct and appropriate way to describe Red Dead Redemption. Rockstar rides again."

Seth Schiesel, we salute you!

If you would like to read the full review, and I highly recommend you do, you can do so on The New York Times website.

If you need a reason to show up at tonight's Red Dead Redemption midnight launch besides being the first to legally play the game, perhaps this picture of Redemption goodies that was sent to a GameStop for them to give out will convince you.

Convinced? Head on over to Rockstar's midnight store launch locator to find a midnight launch in your area!

Thanks to Jonathan Irvine for the picture!

According to a retailer at The Dubai Mall, Red Dead Redemption has been banned in the United Arab Emirates (otherwise known as the UAE). It joins the list of games already banned this year by UAE’s National Media Council, including Heavy Rain, God of War 3 and Darksiders.

Middle East Gamers, who originally revealed news of the ban, say that they found it "a total surprise. From the trailers, screenshots and other media released, the game does not seem to be touching on any religious toes nor has there been any sign of nudity to be featured in the game". However, as we know the game is rated Mature and contains a sex scene with brief female nudity, thus this is most likely the reasoning behind the ban. At the moment, neither Rockstar nor the UAE have commented on the ban, which is pretty standard, so we'll let you know if any more news surrounding the ban comes to light.

Source: Middle East Gamers via VG247

Amazon has listed Red Dead Redemption's soundtrack on their online MP3 store. While you cannot yet buy the soundtrack, there are previews of each song avaiable, just select one of the songs below:

Source: Amazon.com