Red Octane Wants You To Play Music

The story doesn't seem like a big deal: Red Octane partners with NAMM (the giant International Music Products Association) to promote music awareness and creation in the "Wanna Play?" campaign. Big whoop, right? But when you realise that Red Octane is NAMM's first ever video game industry partner, the story's significance shifts a bit. In partnering for cross promotional events and kiosks, not only is NAMM acknowledging Red Octane's ability to recruit youngsters to play music (and buy real instruments), they are also publicly acknowledging Red Octane's (and Guitar Hero's) legitimate seat at the giant table that is the musical world. It's like they're holding hands in public or something and NAMM is totally cool with it.