RedOctane Founders Will Keep Rocking At Activision

Times are tough in the Activision Blizzard empire, as evidenced by some of the massive layoffs seen throughout the company. Downsizing hit the studios at Neversoft and Prototype developer Radical Entertainment, while Activision subsidiaries Luxoflux and Underground Development were shut down completely.

Red Octane, which birthed the entire music genre craze of the past decade with its Guitar Hero franchise, was also effectively shuttered, as Activision management made the decision to lay off a majority of Red Octane’s internal development staff, retaining only those staffers involved with hardware and peripheral design and production. The hardware and peripheral personnel will now be rolled into Activision itself.

Though the Guitar Hero group CEO Dan Rosenweig recently departed Activision, online site Develop reports that Red Octane founders Kai and Charles Huang will stay on at Activision. At the moment, their role in the company following the closing of Red Octane is unknown, but in an interview last November, Kai Huang seemed to have some ideas about the future of the music genre, including possible applications for Microsoft’s Project Natal.

Via Develop