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 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,

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

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' 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'' in November 2005 for the PlayStation 2. The game was successful and RedOctane had Jack McCauley design more sophisticated hardware for a sequel, which they released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. In May 2006, video game publisher Activision 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, the team responsible for the Tony Hawk 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 '' Guitar Hero'' an "instant cult classic". In its 26 first months after release, ''Guitar Hero'' generated over $1B in sales. RedOctane released '' Guitar Hero World Tour'' 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