Prior to Harmonix splitting from Activision to buddy-buddy up to EA for Rock Band, they were working with Red Octane on Guitar Hero. Red Octane president Kai Huang has made some interesting comments regarding his once partner gone competitor. He feels that Rock Band brings with it complexity, unlike Guitar Hero, and it might not be something that strikes well with the mass market.

"With Guitar Hero, we want to make it as broadly appealing as possible, as market, as casual a game as possible," Huang explains. "With Rock Band [it's] slightly different… you need more instruments, more people. I think those things are a little more complex, so perhaps not the mass market, casual game experience that everyone wants."

Huang concedes, though, that "[Rock Band] will be a very good game."

The origin of how Guitar Hero was conceived was also disclosed.

"We wanted to do another music game [after In The Groove], another instrument-based game that would appeal to a Western audience. For us [the choice of music] had to be rock and roll. And from there, well, if you're going to make a rock and roll game, and you're thinking about instruments, it has to be a guitar," explained Huang.

Following that, Red Octane approached Harmonix regarding the concept, and it turned out they were tossing around the idea of a guitar game for some time, too.

"And they (Harmonix) said that it was funny, because they'd been thinking of doing a guitar game in the past... And that's how the relationship kicked off."

Hearing about the tender beginnings which was cultivated into a mass market sensation is so touching.