 In 2005 , RedOctane , a company specializing in the manufacture of unique game controllers , was inspired to create Guitar Hero based on RedOctane 's experience creating hardware for Konami 's Guitar Freaks arcade game . They enlisted Harmonix , who previously developed several music video games , for development assistance . The first game in the series was made on a budget of $ 1 million . The series became extremely successful , leading to the acquisition of RedOctane by Activision in 2007 . Harmonix was acquired by MTV Games and went on to create the Rock Band series of music games in the same vein as Guitar Hero . Activision brought Neversoft ( primarily known for their Tony Hawk series of <unk> games ) on board for future development duties . Additional companies , such as Budcat Creations and Vicarious Visions have assisted in the adaptation of the games for other systems . 
