Red Octane, the original publisher of rock-out music game Guitar Hero, looks set to continue to release spin-off titles of the series on Sony's aging PlayStation 2, according to comments made by Dusty Welch, the company's head of publishing.

Welch believes that Sony will "continue to manufacture and market [PS2] aggressively in 2007 and 2008," and he informed GamesIndustry.biz that Red Octane's plan is "to be a multi-platform publisher, meaning viable platforms will be supported," suggesting that we could expect Guitar Hero games to hit PS2 for as long as Sony continues to pump out the consoles.

In addition, Welch has confirmed that the brains behind Guitar Hero, Harmonix, will not be creating further games in the series, with development duties passing to Neversoft - clearing up the confusion that arose recently after Neversoft began advertising for jobs on Guitar Hero projects. Harmonix will complete Guitar Hero II for Xbox 360, due out in the spring, but will then part ways with Red Octane to pursue an ambitious new endeavor of its own.

January 30, 2007