Activision Confirms RedOctane Acquisition News

Activision has today announced that it's acquired the publisher of Guitar Hero, RedOctane, which will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Inc. The move comes as part of a strategy by Activision that expects the growth of music-based videogames in coming years.

"Our acquisition of RedOctane perfectly aligns with Activision's strategy to broaden its portfolio by entering new genres that have strong global appeal," said Ron Doornink, Director and Strategic Advisor, Activision, Inc. "Guitar Hero integrates music and gaming in a unique and highly engaging way that delivers a compelling game experience for both the current- and next-generation consoles. The success we are seeing today is a strong indicator that Guitar Hero and the many potential extensions, new platform exploitations and international versions appear to be somewhat transition proof, as consumers are responding to this product on current-generation platforms in a manner that defies traditional late-cycle behavior. We think the online capabilities of the next-generation platforms offer new and well differentiated opportunities to create additional revenues from downloadable music, which today represents one of the most popular downloadable content categories."

Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing, Inc., added, "Activision's well-established worldwide distribution capabilities coupled with the strength of the Guitar Hero franchise, places us in a position today to capitalize on the millions of current-generation systems in the market. Just as we lead the industry in making music an integral part of the game experience, we will now be making music itself a game, which is appealing to audiences all around the world."

"RedOctane is incredibly excited about joining forces with Activision to lead the industry in the music-based gaming category," said Kai Huang, President and Co-Founder of RedOctane, Inc.

Charles Huang, COO and Co-Founder of RedOctane, Inc., added, "The powerful combination of our deep understanding of the music-based gaming category and Activision's global publishing infrastructure will enable us to realize our vision to remain the leader in music-gaming space."

We'll have more on RedOctane and Activision shortly...