Stage Tour Sets December 10 Launch Date as RedOctane's Guitar Heir Lands on PS5, Xbox, PC and Switch 2

Stage Tour, the long-teased rhythm game from a re-formed RedOctane Games, will launch on December 10, 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2. The release date was confirmed during Gamescom's Opening Night Live, where RedOctane head of studio Simon Ebejer called the project "our love letter to rhythm gaming."

Stage Tour is being positioned as the closest thing to a true Guitar Hero successor in more than a decade. RedOctane Games was founded in August 2025 by former staff of the original RedOctane — the studio that published Guitar Hero with developer Harmonix in 2005 before its 2006 Activision acquisition and 2010 shutdown — and now operates under the Embracer Group's Freemode division. Original co-founders Kai and Charles Huang have returned in advisory roles.

At launch, Stage Tour will ship with more than 90 officially licensed tracks spanning six decades, drawn from artists including Metallica, Paramore, Black Eyed Peas, Blink-182, Muse, Fall Out Boy, The Rolling Stones, Duran Duran, Genesis, Mötley Crüe and Radiohead. RedOctane confirmed 20 new songs alongside the Gamescom trailer, taking the public count to 45 of the planned 90 tracks, with the rest to be announced before launch.

A standout feature is the game's instrument licensing. Gibson is on board as a multi-year partner, which RedOctane says will translate into more than 180 unlockable Gibson, Epiphone and Kramer guitars — the largest collection of real-world guitars ever featured in a rhythm game. CRKD, also owned by Embracer Freemode, is producing the first-party controllers: a Kramer Guitar Controller at $109.99, a Drum Kit at $199.99, and wireless and wired USB microphones priced at $29.99 and $19.99 respectively. The flagship CRKD x Stage Tour Collection includes the 8K Gibson Explorer 20th Anniversary Edition and the Les Paul Oxblood Edition, both listed for pre-order at $129.99 and $119.99.

Stage Tour will support the classic band setup but is also built with flexible inputs in mind. On PC, players can use a standard keyboard alongside guitar, bass, drum and vocal inputs, and a controller compatibility layer is planned for players who do not want to invest in plastic peripherals. The campaign introduces a roguelite structure alongside the named "Tour Mode" and "Judgements Mode," with development support from Eidos Montréal on motion capture and QA, and Third Kind Games contributing additional development work.

The announcement caps a Gamescom week that has already delivered set pieces for Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII Revelation, Bandai Namco's Blood of Dawnwalker and Paradox's post-apocalyptic grand strategy title Afterworld. Stage Tour's December 10 launch lands ahead of the holiday window in both hemispheres, with RedOctane positioning the title as a hardware-led rhythm comeback rather than a software-only nostalgia play. Stage Tour Collection pre-orders are open at CRKD.