From the annals of 2005, allow us to introduce you to RedOctane. Well, “reintroduce” would be a more fitting word, as this is the same brand of the original Guitar Hero studio, which was founded in late 2005 and closed down by Activision in 2010.
Now, they’re back a brand new company, ready to make new rhythm games and, according to their announcement earlier this Wednesday, they’ve hit the ground running and are already cooking up stuff.
Granted, there’s not much to tell as of now, but read on to find out what we know so far.
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Everything We Know About RedOctane Games
Who is RedOctane
RedOctane—or “RedOctane Game LLC”, as the registry on their website goes—is what we like to call a “new old”/”old new” game development studio.
As we stated earlier, the company’s name is the same as its 2005 iteration, albeit with a few key differences we’ll get to further down.
What you should know, mainly, are two things: the first is that they’re already hard at work on their first game, but won’t share much (or rather, nothing) of it for now, which is to be expected since the studio was announced today.
The second is that you should pay attention to this brand—especially if you’re into rhythm games or, if you’re anything like us, you’re feeling the nostalgia creeping up on you, because…
Who’s behind this new RedOctane
This new RedOctane is formed mainly of the original Guitar Hero developers. In fact, their management also comprises some interesting names in the gaming industry:
- Simon Ebejer: studio head and a seasoned industry veteran who previously worked on Guitar Hero and Diablo IV.
- Charles and Kai Huang, the original founders of the Guitar Hero franchise, will also serve on a special advisory board.
- The dev team includes both veterans from the original Guitar Hero and DJ Hero teams and new-generation developers and community leaders.
So far, this is all they had to share, but as their own press release states, more news will follow “later in 2025”, so it’s a safe assumption we’ll be hearing more about them sooner rather than later.
As for corporate shenanigans, RedOctane is an initiative brought by Freemode, a division within the larger Embracer Group. According to their own statements, Embracer Freemode was established to support and guide a collection of independent businesses within the gaming and entertainment space. It focuses on several segments, including classic/retro gaming, e-commerce, game development, and accessories.
What games are they creating and when does it come out
Ah, yes. Here comes the juicy bits. Well, sucks to be you/us, because we got nothing: their press release states that RedOctane is already developing a new game. It even goes as far as telling us it will be a rhythm-based game, much like Guitar Hero and DJ Hero was, and not unlike many of their clones throughout all gaming platforms over the decades.
“Rhythm games are about more than just gameplay; they’re about feel, flow, and connection to the music and to each other,” said Simon Ebejer, Head of Studio. “RedOctane Games is our way of giving back to a genre that means so much to us, while pushing it forward in new and exciting directions.”
Simon Ebejer, Head of RedOctane Games
They are planning on making a formal announcement “later this year”, so we’re putting a safe bet that we’ll hear more about the studio and the game around the same time.
In fact, here are some of the global industry’s major events scheduled for this 2025—we can bet something will come out about RedOctane on at least one of them:
- Gamescom: August 20-24 in Cologne, Germany.
- PAX West: August 29 – September 1 in Seattle, Washington.
- Tokyo Game Show: September 27-28 in Chiba, Japan.
- Brasil Games Show: October 9-12 in São Paulo, Brazil.
We’re going out on a limb here and place our bet on PAX. While Gamescom is a major industry event and is known for major reveals, the date feels too close for anything like this to take place. At the same time, Tokyo and Brasil Games Show are big enough, but too focused on local industry. PAX is a smaller endeavor, but it is community-centered, which might be right around RedOctane’s ballpark, so it might be a candidate.
