Former Guitar Hero devs fund new rhythm games studio

Former Guitar Hero developers have founded RedOctane Games, a studio dedicated to rhythm games.

Announced today, the studio (which bears the brand of the original Guitar Hero developer RedOctane) is spearheaded by Simon Ebejer, former production director at Neversoft, where he oversaw production of games like Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for over eight years. He’s since worked as production director at Infinity Ward, chief operating officer at Vicarious Visions, and vice president of operations of the Diablo franchise at Blizzard.

The new studio is a subsidiary of Embracer-owned operating group Embracer Freemode.

Ebejer will lead a team of 23 people, which includes industry veterans with experience working in the Guitar Hero series as well as emerging talent embedded in the rhythm game space. The special advisory board includes Charles and Kai Huang—the brothers founded RedOctane in 1999. RedOctane led production and publishing of the first handful of Guitar Hero games alongside developer Harmonix. After Activision acquired RedOctane in 2006, Harmonix went on to make the Rock Band series, while Activision-owned Neversoft was assigned as developer for multiple future titles.

The announcement says RedOctane Games is focused “solely on advancing the rhythm game genre,” combining the past with the future. The team has been in pre-production over recent months—at least four, according to Ebejer’s LinkedIn profile—and has now entered production on its debut rhythm-based title, which is expected to be announced later this year.

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“Rhythm games are about more than just gameplay they’re about feel, flow, and connection to the music and to each other,” Ebejer said in the announcement. “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.”

Former RedOctane devs already paved the way for the new studio

In 2023, Embracer Freemode announced CRKD, a collaborative video game hardware project created with Freemode’s technology incubation lab, which started with a handheld deck for Nintendo Switch. The team at CRKD comprises the majority of former Red Octane hardware designers and producers, and has launched accessories for Fortnite Festival since.

This year, CRKD announced a collaboration with Gibson to build a new Les Paul guitar controller compatible with not just Fortnite Festival but existing Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, as well as community-driven projects like Clone Hero. Early this week, the CRKD teased today’s announcement on socials as well, with fans theorizing about the flame in the logo, which references the original RedOctane.

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CRKD is joining a slow but steady number of teams working on modern hardware for rhythm games, including 2024’s Riffmaster by PDP for Rock Band 4 and Fortnite Festival and the recently announced Drakong InfinaKore Telecaster. 

As of present, RedOctane Games has yet to share details about how its debut rhythm game will work. When it comes to hardware, however, it seems the team will be covered.