Tag Archives: Kai Huang

Looks like the founders of RedOctane, Kai and Charles Huang, will not be leaving Activision, despite the reported closure of the firm’s operations at the company later in the month.

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Guitar Hero co-founder Kai Huang, speaking recently on a panel at the PLAY Digital Media Conference in Berkeley, has said that Activision is not expecting DJ Hero to show blockbuster sales straight off the bat.

“We’re not expecting a typical videogame curve where you sell the majority of the units in the first month and then it decays quickly,” Huang said.

“We’re expecting this to be the type of game that may came out of the gate a little bit slower, but continue to grow over time.”

He added: “We’ve got a bit of a head start, people have an understanding what music games are, it has the ‘Hero’ brand on it. But at the same time, people don’t know what a DJ game is, they don’t know what you’re supposed to do. Our strategy again is to focus on in-store demos.

“If you look at Guitar Hero 3, which to date has been the most successful Guitar Hero game to date selling 12 million units, it did take three iterations to get the game out there and for people to know how it works.”

That’s the “DJ HERO SOLD 12 UNITS IN THE US LAST MONTH” headlines headed off, then.

More on IGN.

Guitar Hero may have a hardware-less future, if comments made by Red Octane president and co-founder Kai Huang to DigitalSpy are to be believed.

“We’ve definitely been evaluating Microsoft’s Natal technology along with a lot of other different technologies that could enhance the Guitar Hero playing experience,” Huang said.

“Natal is very interesting because there’s so many different things you can do with it, whether it’s the motion detecting, maybe sensing how you’re playing, or the ability to use it for interactivity purposes and taking advantage of it for party purposes…

“We’re evaluating it, and I think it’s likely that sometime in the future we’ll have those technologies integrated into our games.”

Huang’s comments come after Acti boss Bobby Kotick said recently that Guitar Hero games may soon not need a console. All that’s left to get rid of now is the game itself. Imagine: you pay Bobby money, and you consume music without having to press any buttons or hold a plastic guitar. You just “hear” it.

Bet that’s roasting your goose, non?

Thanks, 1UP.