Next Generation announced their annual list of top 25 people in the video game industry this past Thursday, and included the industry's most rockin' female, RedOctane's Stacey Hirata, vice president of marketing, responsible for the Guitar Hero brand. Each year Next Generation calls for nominations of individuals that have made an impact through positive, significant and noteworthy contributions to the video game industry.

"The success of Guitar Hero could not have been achieved without the hard work and dedication from Stacey and everyone at RedOctane," said Kai Huang, co-founder and president at RedOctane. "We are very proud of the achievements that she and the team have accomplished, and we look forward to continuing to growing the Guitar Hero franchise even further."

Hirata was acknowledged for her role in last year's cult-hit video game, Guitar Hero. The PlayStation 2 game was the fifth biggest selling game of 2005 and through November of this year, it was one of only two 2005 products to make the list of 2006 top 20 best-sellers. Hirata helped turn Guitar Hero into a full-blown pop culture phenomenon — with spots on TV, print and online as well as innovative live events for is successor, Guitar Hero II.