RedOctane, Inc. (Company)

RedOctane, Inc.

COMPANY» Founded 1999-08-15

Sunnyvale,California,USA

Red Octane is the publisher for the famous Guitar Hero franchise.

History

Kai and Charles Haung

Red octane was founded in 1999 by the brothers Kai Huang (Person) and Charles Huang (Person). They got their beginnings operating the worlds first online video game rental service. They soon began to create game accessories such as the Red Octane dance mat, Joysticks, and other accessories to build upon already existent 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 In The Groove developed by Roxor Games for the Play Station 2 and Arcade (Platform) platforms. Later in 2005 Red Octane teamed up with Harmonix Music Systems (Company) to create their smash hit, Guitar Hero (Game), making the popular SG guitar. They later went on to help make peripherals for Guitar Hero 2 and Rock the 80's with Harmonix, as well.

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Guitar controller made by Red Octane

The next landmark event for Red Octane was their split from Harmonix in May of 2006. Activision (Company) bought out Red Octane for $99.9 Million in cash and common stock. Later after the split, Red Octane teamed up with Neversoft, creators of the Tony Hawk Skateboarding franchise, to create Guitar Hero 3, Legends of Rock. They have also put out Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Guitar Hero: Metallica, Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, Guitar Hero: Van Halen, DJ Hero (Game) and Guitar Hero 5 (Game) with Neversoft.

In February 2010, Red Octane closed it's doors and the Guitar Hero software making was internalized by the Activision (Company) team.