RedOctane Games Dates Stage Tour for December 10 With Day-One Instruments

RedOctane Games, the rhythm-game studio built by veterans of the original Guitar Hero team, has locked in December 10, 2026 as the launch date for Stage Tour, its instrument-driven rhythm title for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2. The date, confirmed on the game’s official site, puts the self-published revival of the plastic-instrument business in stores for the holiday quarter, with first-party guitar controllers, a drum kit, and microphones available for pre-order alongside it.

The December date narrows the 2026 release window previously listed on the game’s Steam page. The launch setlist will carry more than 90 officially licensed songs spanning six decades, with 45 tracks confirmed so far, among them Metallica’s “Lux Æterna,” Slipknot’s “Psychosocial,” and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Dani California.” The studio says the setlist will keep growing after release through paid downloadable songs.

Stage Tour is a full-band game in the classic mold: lead and groove guitar, drums, vocals, plus an arcade mode playable on a standard gamepad or keyboard. Difficulty runs from Easy to Expert, with an Expert Plus tier on drums, and offline play is supported outside of online multiplayer and leaderboards. The Steam page also lists cross-platform play between PC and consoles.

Hardware Goes on Sale With the Game

RedOctane is shipping a first-party hardware line through the official Stage Tour store rather than leaving players to hunt for decade-old peripherals. A wireless Kramer-branded guitar controller is priced at $109.99 in the US, the Stage Tour drum kit at $199.99, and microphones from $19.99, with a game-and-guitar bundle at $129.99 and band kits running to $349.99. Licensed Gibson guitar controllers, built with peripheral maker CRKD, start at $119.99.

Compatibility is the other half of that strategy. The studio says modern controllers, including CRKD’s guitars, the Riffmaster, and Rock Band 4 instruments, will work natively with Stage Tour, while legacy Xbox 360, Wii, PS3, and PS2-era hardware can be brought along with adapters, with the widest legacy support on PC. A £100 entry point for the guitar in the UK, first reported by VGC, puts the US bundle pricing modestly below the historical peak of the band-kit era.

Who Is Making Stage Tour

RedOctane Games’ core crew is led by studio head Simon Ebejer, with original RedOctane founders Kai and Charles Huang listed as advisors on the studio’s site. The Huang brothers serve as advisors to the studio, which is led by studio head Simon Ebejer, a veteran of Guitar Hero’s years at Neversoft and Vicarious Visions. The studio describes itself as a mix of original RedOctane staff, former Neversoft and Harmonix developers, and community figures from the fan-made rhythm scene, with development support from Third Kind Games and Eidos Montréal.

The game is presented in association with Gibson, whose Epiphone and Kramer brands supply the in-game guitar collection and the licensed controller designs. RedOctane has run closed alpha playtests since June 2026 and revealed the setlist in weekly drops that took the confirmed track count from seven songs to 45, with more reveals promised before launch.

What Happens Before the December 10 Launch

The studio has two dated milestones between now and release. A closed beta runs in September 2026, with testers drawn from the game’s email list, and digital pre-orders open across Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and the Epic Games Store ahead of launch. Hardware pre-orders are already live in two regional versions, one for North America and one covering Europe and Oceania.

EVENT_TIME: 2026-08-25T19:44:29+00:00