Report: RedOctane Founders To Remain At Activision Despite Division Closure

Despite the confirmed closure of Activision subsidiary and former Guitar Hero publisher RedOctane, reports claim RedOctane founders Kai and Charles Huang will remain at Activision. Earlier this month, Activision laid off staffers at a number of its owned developers including Radical Entertainment (Prototype) and Neversoft Entertainment (Guitar Hero series), and closed Luxoflux (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen). It was later confirmed that RedOctane would be closed as well. Now, an Activision rep tells UK trade publication Develop that the Huangs are staying on. Their specific role within the broader organization, beyond their near-certain involvement in the Guitar Hero franchise, was not explained. The Huang brothers founded the Mountain View, California-based company in 1999. For most of its early life, it focused on peripherals for other companies' music games, but it struck gold in 2005 when it published Harmonix's original Guitar Hero game. Activision acquired the publisher the following year for $99.9 million, gaining the Guitar Hero name in the process. Since then, the Guitar Hero brand has seen a number of hits, but its revenue has decreased noticeably in the last year, as the broader music game genre has taken a hit. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick recently reflected on his company's decision to buy RedOctane rather than Harmonix, saying that the hypothetical opposite situation "would probably [have been] a profitable opportunity for both of us."