RedOctane, Inc. was an American electronic entertainment company best known for producing the ''Guitar Hero'' series, beginning in November 2005. RedOctane became a wholly owned subsidiary of

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

in 2006. In February 2010, Activision closed the RedOctane division.

History

RedOctane was founded in 1999 by the brothers Kai Huang and Charles Huang. They got their beginnings operating the world's first online video game rental service, called WebGameZone. They soon began to create game accessories such as the Red Octane Ignition

dance mat A dance pad, also known as a dance mat or dance platform, is a flat electronic game controller used for input in dance games. Most dance pads are divided into a 3×3 matrix of square panels for the player to stand on, with some or all of the pane ...

joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...

s, and other accessories to build upon already-existing musical games. After soon realizing that their game accessories were tied to the launch dates of the games they were producing for, Red Octane began producing games. Their first original game was a

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

port of

Roxor Games Roxor Games, Inc. is a 25-person company based in Austin, Texas that develops video game software for the arcade and home markets. Founded in 2002, Roxor works with developers of open source software to deploy games on a Linux-based hardware platfor ...

' arcade rhythm game '' In the Groove''. RedOctane teamed with developer

Harmonix Music Systems Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., doing business as Harmonix, is an American video game developer company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in May 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy. Harmonix is perhaps best known as bei ...

to release ''

Guitar Hero ''Guitar Hero'' is a series of music rhythm game video games first released in November 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Player ...

'' in November 2005 for the PlayStation 2. The game was successful and RedOctane had

Jack McCauley Jack McCauley is an American engineer, hardware designer, inventor, video game developer and philanthropist. As an engineer at Activision, he designed the guitars and drums for the Guitar Hero video game series and was the Chief Engineer at Ocu ...

design more sophisticated hardware for a

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

, which they released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

. In May 2006, video game publisher

announced plans to acquire RedOctane, completing the deal on June 6, 2006. Activision reportedly paid RedOctane $99.9 million in cash and common stock in the acquisition. Activision acquired McCauley's consulting company, R0R3 Devices, at the same time. After the Activision buy-out and a split from Harmonix, who went on to develop competing game ''

Rock Band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

'', RedOctane utilized Activision owned

Neversoft Neversoft Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Woodland Hills, California. The studio was founded by Joel Jewett, Mick West and Chris Ward in July 1994 and was acquired by Activision in October 1999. Initially, the st ...

, the team responsible for the

Tony Hawk Anthony Frank Hawk (born May 12, 1968), nicknamed Birdman, is an American professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, and the owner of the skateboard company Birdhouse. A pioneer of modern vertical skateboarding, Hawk completed the first documen ...

skateboarding video game franchise, to take the helm on '' Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock'', which became available in November 2007. Gaming news site Kotaku called ''

'' an "instant cult classic". In its 26 first months after release, ''Guitar Hero'' generated over $1B in sales. RedOctane released ''

Guitar Hero World Tour ''Guitar Hero World Tour'' (initially referred to as ''Guitar Hero IV'' or ''Guitar Hero IV: World Tour'') is a music rhythm video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' ...

'' in October 2008. On February 11, 2010, Activision announced the closure of their RedOctane division.

References

{{Authority control Defunct Activision subsidiaries Former Vivendi subsidiaries Dance pads Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game companies established in 1999 Video game companies disestablished in 2010 Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area American companies established in 1999