Red Dead — like Grand Theft Auto — is one of publisher Take-Two's 'permanent' franchises

John Wayne is no longer with us, but the Western still lives.

Take-Two chief executive officer Strauss Zelnick confirmed yesterday that Red Dead Redemption is one of the company’s “permanent” franchises, as first spotted by GameSpot. Speaking at investment bank Cowen & Company’s annual technology conference, Zelnick said that the open-world Western is just as important to Take-Two as Grand Theft Auto and Borderlands. Red Dead Redemption, the second game in the franchise, debuted in 2010 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The hit put players into the role of a cowboy struggling to make it on the frontier, and it went on to surpass more than 13 million copies in sales.