'Guitar Hero' creators bullish on new game

Q. How has “Guitar Hero” changed music for listeners?

Charles: It’s a new way to experience music. At first, music was something you listened to. Then, in the age of music videos, music became something that you listened to and you watched. With “Guitar Hero,” you listen to it, you watch it on the screen, and then you play along to the music and you actively engage (and) interact with the music. And that was a totally new — and very compelling, for a lot of video game players –way to experience music.

Kai: It also is changing the experience because people are now really appreciating all of the musical instruments and the actual level of skill that it takes to play them.

Q: Red Octane was first an online game rental service, and then you made game peripherals. Were you video game guys who became passionate about music, or were you passionate music guys who saw video games as an outlet for music?

Kai: I think I was first more passionate about video games. Charles and I have been playing video games since we could first hold a controller in our hand. And we’ve always had a passion for playing video games

Once we were in the video game world, we got exposed to these music games and saw the potential of them and the potential  popularity of these types of games, and that’s what led us to eventually doing “Guitar Hero.”

Q: What’s it like running a company with a sibling?

Charles: (Laughs). It’s not always easy! As you know, with your siblings, you don’t have to be tactful. I can tell Kai, you know, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard —

Kai: And he does.

Charles: But, the great thing about it is the level of trust and familiarity, having grown up with him that you don’t have to try and figure out if you’re thinking on the same wavelength.

Q; You guys made peripherals, and at some point, you hooked up with the Harmonix guys who had experience making music games, and you made “Guitar Hero.”  Can you clarify what each team brought to the table there?

Kair: Harmonix was a fantastic developer of music games. So, we actually reached out to them to see if they were interested in doing a “Guitar Hero” game for us, and of course, they eventually became our developer for (the first) “Guitar Hero.” 

On the Red Octane side, we were the publishers of the game, we financed and did all the sales, marketing and distribution, and, given our background in hardware, which we thought was the most unique aspect of these types of games, we focused on building and designing and manufacturing the hardware.

Q; “Guitar Hero World Tour” adds drums and a microphone to the package. Was that always a part of your plan, or was it a reaction to “Rock Band?”

Kai: It really was a part of our plan from awhile ago. We have great design on the instruments and the hardware, which we’re really proud of, all the new features that we’re adding:  the authentic instruments, the software features were everything we were been looking for, all new music … and then ‘Guitar Hero Studio,’ which is going to all people to actually create their own music. And then using ‘Guitar Hero Tunes,’ they can upload and share that music with the rest of the world. So, we think we have a complete package now, and ‘Guitar Hero World Tour’ was the right time to intro that to our fans.

Q:  Activision’s CEO (Bobby Kotick) has been conducting a bit of a war of words with Warner Brothers’ CEO (Edgar Bronfman Jr.) over the amount Activision pays to license the record company’s songs. Warner Brothers says they deserve a bigger cut of the “Guitar Hero” profits … and Kotick is on the record saying that maybe the company should pay Activision. What’s your take?

Kai: I think it’s so new, these music games. And I think “Guitar Hero” … has really changed the face of not just the game industry, but the music industry. So, there’s still a lot of growing pains. What’s important is that these types of games, music games, are great for the consumer, they’re great for the artists, the fans want more music, the artists want to get their music in front of all these fans.

Q: When “Guitar Hero” came out, video games were pretty much dominated by first-person shooters and a few key (real-time strategy) franchises. Why was “Guitar Hero” successful at this time?

Kai: I thought “Guitar Hero” was successful because it was different. The gaming world had been dominated by genres that had really been around a long time. “Guitar Hero” came out a year before the Wii when, at the time, we called them party games, and now social gaming has become the de facto term. We saw that interest in people, where not only were the people playing the games having a good time, but it was all the people who were standing around watching those people play games that was really interesting to us.

Q. Is there a band or an artist that you guys personally really, really want to see on “Guitar Hero?”

Kai: For me AC/DC is one of the bands…there’s a ton of them, but that’s a band that was certainly made for this game.

Charles: Led Zeppelin, even the Beatles are high, high up on the list.

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