A group of rhythm game genre veterans has re-established the RedOctane Games brand, via a new studio set to launch a fresh Guitar Hero-style title.
If the name RedOctane sounds familiar, that’s because it was the original studio that partnered with Harmonix to create Guitar Hero back in the early 2000s. That earlier version of RedOctane was then quickly acquired by Activision (which also ultimately shut it down).
Now, this new incarnation of RedOctane has been established as part of Embracer, and will be led by Simon Ebejer, who worked as production director on various Guitar Hero titles during the franchise’s Neversoft heyday, before later moving on to Vicarious Visions and Blizzard.
“This game won’t be Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, Guitar Freaks or Rockband,” RedOctane teased in a statement today. “This is something new. A rhythm game built with love, by people who care, with the community at its core in this fast-changing modern world we live in.
“We firmly believe the expert here is the community and a new generation of development talent, the folks that have kept the lights on these last few years.”
Staffed by a mix of new and veteran developers, RedOctane’s rhythm project will be overseen by brothers Charles and Kai Huang, founders of the original RedOctane, as part of a special advisory board. Further details on the game, including a name and project release date, currently remain under wraps.
Of course, this isn’t the first attempt at a rhythm genre revival. Back in late 2023, Epic Games launched Fortnite Festival, a Guitar Hero-style mode developed by Harmonix (now a part of Epic) that allowed players to tap along via standard controllers or more recent instrument accesories. The offering is still kept updated with weekly tunes, but has not attracted the same player numbers as Fortnite’s main battle royale modes.
“Music has done extraordinarily well in Fortnite, but ironically, not so much in music games,” Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney told IGN earlier this year, “more just in Battle Royale and elsewhere. Our next step is to figure out music at a large scale.” Now, it seems like Epic Games and Harmonix has some competition.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
