While delivering his keynote speech at DICE gaming summit yesterday Activision CEO Bobby Kotick admitted it was a mistake not to work with Rock Band developers Harmonix when creating hit franchise Guitar Hero.

“We really didn’t even think, ‘Hey, we should go to Boston and meet these Harmonix guys and see what they’re up to,’” Kotick revealed, adding that “It would probably be a profitable opportunity for both of us.”

Instead the publisher opted to team up with developers Red Octane, which brought about the birth of Guitar Hero – one of the most commercially successful IPs of the last decade.

Nonetheless, Harmonix’s Rock Band: The Beatles, which launched in 2009, has gone some way towards challenging the title – perhaps giving Kotick the insight that ruling the developer out in the early years of music gaming might have been a bad choice.