RedOctane Bought For $100 Million

[Shawn Andrich]

RedOctane Bought For $100 Million

Activision's latest SEC filing has revealed that the publisher paid $99.9 million for RedOctane, the development studio behind Guitar Hero.

In May of 2006, Activision purchased RedOctane for an undisclosed amount of money on the eve of E3. It has been revealed in their latest SEC filing [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=18819] that Activision paid $99.9 million for the studio with another $50 million in Activision stock if "the net income of the business over a certain period of time exceeds certain target levels by certain amounts."

Guitar Hero 2 is slated to hit shelves this Christmas with new multiplayer modes and over 40 news songs. In 2007 the company plans to unveil Guitar Hero "theme" releases covering genres like country and heavy metal.

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[Russ Pitts]

That's just insane. No wonder those guys were partying like it was 1999 at E3.

 

[Yadam Siegfried]

RedOctane deserves it. Guitar Hero is one of the best games I have played in a long time for my PS2.

 

[Quintin Stone]

RedOctane was not actually the developer of Guitar Hero. That was Harmonix [http://www.harmonixmusic.com/about.html]. RedOctane published the game.

 

[Goofonian]

RedOctane deserves it. Guitar Hero is one of the best games I have played in a long time for my PS2.

RedOctane was not actually the developer of Guitar Hero. That was Harmonix [http://www.harmonixmusic.com/about.html]. RedOctane published the game.

regardless who it was that made it, guitar hero is something special and is in fact, along with god of war, the reason that I picked up a ps2 just recently. I'm looking forward to online co-op in GH2 so I can rock out with my friends (and perhaps some escapists) towards the end of this year

edit: online co-op in GH2 is just a fantasy of mine, I have no idea if it will come to be. Wouldn't that be awesome though!

 

[Yadam Siegfried]

RedOctane was not actually the developer of Guitar Hero. That was Harmonix [http://www.harmonixmusic.com/about.html]. RedOctane published the game.

RedOctane developed the controller...

 

[Andraste]

Cheers to them! I'm glad to see people recognizing and being recognized for good work in gaming. Here's to more great ideas and games.

 

[Russ Pitts]

RedOctane was not actually the developer of Guitar Hero. That was Harmonix [http://www.harmonixmusic.com/about.html]. RedOctane published the game.

RedOctane developed the controller...

I think "Developer" is one of those titles like "Producer" that can be very gray and differs from instance to instance. In this case though, it's clear that the "development" of Guitar Hero involved a lot more than the coding of the underlying tech, and that Red Octane had a hand in that process beyond merely copying and shipping the game, which is what one normally assumes to be the role of a "publisher."

 

[gamesource [deprecated]]

I don't know enough about Red Octane's financials to gauge whether Activision overpaid, but I do know that they deserved every briefcase full of $100s that they got.