For a brief period in the early 2000s, RedOctane was a big deal. It peaked in 2005 as the publisher of Guitar Hero, leading Activision to acquire it the following year, but just a few years after that the ride was over: Amidst massive market oversaturation and flagging interest among players, Activision shuttered the whole thing in 2010.
That was the end of the tale until 2025, when Embracer brought RedOctane back, with the slightly modified handle RedOctane Games, to deliver "the next evolution in rhythm gaming." Which as it turns out is not Guitar Hero but, man, it sure looks like Guitar Hero.
Okay, it's definitely more Rock Band than Guitar Hero, but RedOctane had nothing to do with Rock Band, which was developed by Harmonix after it parted ways with RedOctane following the Activision buyout. Harmonix also developed the first couple iterations of Guitar Hero, while RedOctane served as publisher and also manufactured the little guitar-shaped controllers used to play the game.
Rock Band was also very much like Guitar Hero except it had drums, so your unreliable, less-talented friends could play too. (Yes, that's a drummer joke.) The point is that as "next evolutions" go, we don't appear to be moving ahead in leaps and bounds here.
Here's Rock Band—forgive the video quality, it was 18 years ago. (God, I feel old.)
"Stage Tour is a rhythm-action game designed to blend familiar and accessible note-highway gameplay with new and exciting modern twists," the Stage Tour Steam page says, without delving into what those new and exciting modern twists might be.
"Stage Tour is poised to rekindle the flame of plastic-instrument rhythm gaming with numerous new features and gamemodes, dozens of bandmates and instruments to fit your unique style, a deep competitive spine, and an extensive roadmap of seasonal content and live events."
There's more to be gleaned from a blog post on the Stage Tour website, which confirms that Stage Tour is a "band game" (although it will be playable solo as well), says signups for a closed alpha test are on the way, and points to a release for the holiday season. Perhaps cognizant of how the rhythm game genre was wrung out like a wet rag the first time around, RedOctane has also already committed to not making Stage Tour 2, saying the game "is not about a sequel treadmill. It is about building something for the long haul."
The very big and obvious question is whether there's enough of an appetite for a new Rock Band-like to sustain RedOctane's ambitions for "regular special events" and other live service features—the whole "long haul" thing the studio is building toward. My thoughts flash immediately to Harmonix's 2016 crowdfunding campaign for a PC version of Rock Band 4, which barely made it halfway to its goal by the time it was over.
But Rock Band 4 was already available on consoles at that point (the series ultimately never made it to PC), and rhythm game exhaustion was still firmly set in back then. 10 years down the road, there's clearly some level of enthusiasm for a new(ish) Rock Band game, but it's impossible to gauge what it will add up to on release date, especially since there's been nothing announced about pricing or song availability.
For now, if you've been hankering for a return of Guitar Hero or Rock Band, you'll probably want to pay attention, and if you're just idly curious you can add it to your wishlist on Steam and see what happens.
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