RedOctane
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| RedOctane | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type | Subsidiary |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Mountain View, California, United States |
| Key people | Kai Huang (President and Co-Founder), Charles Huang (COO and Co-Founder) |
| Industry | Interactive entertainment |
| Owner | Activision |
| Website | redoctanegames.com |
RedOctane is an American electronic entertainment company perhaps best known for publishing the Guitar Hero series. RedOctane became a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision in 2006.
[edit] History
RedOctane was founded in 1999 by Kai Huang and Charles Huang. During August of that year, they began operation as the world's first online video game rental service. After lackluster growth as a web company, they would later become better known for re-designing the Konami Deluxe dance pad into the Ignition dance pads and other video game accessories.
In June 2005, RedOctane expanded into publishing original video games. Their first published title was a PlayStation 2 version of In The Groove, a dancing game. Developed by Roxor Games, In The Groove was already established in arcades.
RedOctane then teamed up with developer Harmonix Music Systems to release Guitar Hero in November 2005 for the PlayStation 2. The music game proved extremely popular, consisting of over 30 licensed tracks playable with a custom-designed guitar peripheral. The game was well-received by critics and fans, spawning a successful sequel in 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. Continuing installments of series are currently slated to appear on several other consoles.
In May 2006, video game publisher Activision announced plans to acquire RedOctane, completing the deal on June 6, 2006.[1] Activision reportedly paid RedOctane $99.9 million in cash and common stock in the acquisition.[2][3]
After the Activision buy-out and a split from Harmonix, who went on to develop competing game Rock Band, 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, [4] which became available in October 2007.
Gaming news site Kotaku calls Guitar Hero an "instant cult classic". In the 26 months since first release, Guitar Hero has generated over $1B in sales.[5]
Red Octane has stated that a fourth Guitar Hero game is in the works and as of May, 2008 this has been confirmed. The game is called "Guitar Hero World Tour" and will be released November 2008.
[edit] References
- ^ Activision Paid $100 mln for RedOctane. Next Generation.
- ^ Activision paid nearly $100 million for Red Octane. Retrieved on 2007-04-18.
- ^ Activision Buys RedOctane for $99.9M. Kotaku. Retrieved on 2007-04-18.
- ^ Ostroff, Joshua (2007). “Battle of the Virtual Bands ". Exclaim! Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-10-31.
- ^ Guitar Hero Goes $1 Billion. Kotaku.
