Viacom Is Selling Off Harmonix

Activision buys Harmonix, turns them into the Guitar Hero and Dance Hero team.

My first thought was Zenimax. 
 
While the music genre may be wrapping up for now, Harmonix delivers. It's an established, known brand with no real failures. They haven't APB'd. It just sounds like MTV gave them a phat bonus and then decided they wanted it back.  
 
So even if they don't make another 'lets play insturments' game, it's still a successful, functioning game development studio with designers used to selling product.

" Activision should buy Harmonix and give them the next Tony Hawk "

I guess Harmonix refused to make Rock Band:The Jersey Shore, and MTV didn't see any other way for them to turn a profit.

I bet they're going to have a more difficult time getting them artists.

" Music games are not selling and Rock Band 3 is, for a music game, pretty inaccessible. I'm not super surprised. "

This is probably a good business move; music games definitely aren't what they once were. I still love them though and I'll be sad if this ends up having any noticeable impact on the way Harmonix runs things. From what I could tell, they leaned heavily on their connections with MTV. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Hopefully just a bump in the road for this talented crew. I'm sure there are more than a few publishers out there that would be happy to get their hands on them and the IP, if that's the deal on the table. Harmonix knows the rhythm game, and it's shame they had to suffer because Activision flooded the market and essentially killed it with middling products. Yeah, maybe Harmonix had one too many band specific games, but even their weakest game was way better than most of the other stuff on the rhythm game market.

"Activision should buy Harmonix and give them the next Tony Hawk "

I'm guessing either Bethesda or Apple will buy Harmonix. 
 
Yeah, Apple...Think about it, rumors they were looking to buy Sony. They have music ties with iTunes, it kinda makes sense.

" I bet they're going to have a more difficult time getting them artists. "

EA, Bethesda, Warner, Disney, *ANYONE* but Activision. PLEEEASE.

Why is this a good thing? Are we to believe that MTV had nothing to do with being able to procure a large amount of the song licences they were able to get? Weather it be the quality of getting hard to get licences, or the quantity of being able to build the store to over 2000 songs? 
 
There's no way this is a good thing in my eyes.

Why is this a good thing? Are we to believe that MTV had nothing to do with being able to procure a large amount of the song licences they were able to get? Weather it be the quality of getting hard to get licences, or the quantity of being able to build the store to over 2000 songs? 
 
There's no way this is a good thing in my eyes.

Did anyone forget that EA helped publish the game? If anything, I'm sure EA will buy up Harmonix just to continue their support on the game and to continue the competition against Activision.

Even good things can be run into the ground.  More than Viacom/MTV/EA, this was Activision's fault.  I know they get blamed for everything.  It's just that they they ruined a genre so fast it has repercussions all around.

Oh fuck. Activision is going to buy them. 
 
Please, any other publisher else step and do the right thing.

" This is bad no matter who picks them up.  Who could get music licenses as well as MTV for DLC? No one. "

" I think it was Beatles Rock Band which kind of cemented it. That said, who would people prefer to buy HMX? Activision? EA? ...Apple? "

They could do worse than to be bought by Disney

Activision is gonna need a new "Guitar Hero" developer soon, i think these harmonix guys are up to it, loi

" Activision is gonna need a new "Guitar Hero" developer soon, i think these harmonix guys are up to it, loi "

And I just bought RB 3 two weeks ago dang it! Now I'm not even sure if the blasted thing will be supported as good as RB 2 was.

Hope these guys get a good deal.

I assume Harmonix is profitable... sucks that they just weren't profitable enough though... :(

Once again MTV is turning away from music

" @JJWeatherman: Yeah, I've heard Rock Band 3 is selling poorly too, which is a real shame. Hopefully Dance Central turns into a nice franchise for them, or that they can come up with something else. Weren't they said to be developing a new amplitude or frequency?   Whatever the case Harmonix is probably the developer that has brought me the most pure fun over the past few years. and I really hope they find a way to keep going strong. Once again MTV is turning away from music, I'm sure they need the money to pay the jersey shore people more.  "

I just have a hard time shelling out 120+ dollars for a keyboard and the game.  The game by-itself is pretty much just a list of new songs.  Rhythm games are fun, but very expensive to keep up with.

If Activision buys....the world ends.

Giant Bomb should buy Harmonix!!!!!!

MTV is selling a company that exclusively makes music games when the music game genre is starting to slump?  Shocking.

I wonder if not having MTV/Viacom involved will hurt music licensing any.... 
 
probably not, but we'll see

Eh, Rock Band 3 is really just the pinnacle of the whole "realistic peripheral" portion of the music genre. I mean, seriously. You've got note-accurate guitar, bass, keyboard, and (probably at least partly) drums, along with solid vocals. Where else can you go with peripherals? There aren't really any other instruments that you can fake playing, because the rest involve different fingerings for each.
 
Seriously, Saxophone Hero? Trumpet Hero? It'd probably be cheaper to just buy the instrument, because I doubt they'd be able to bring any kind of decent experience to it, besides the fact that no one would want to play it. 
 
The whole Guitar Hero/Rock Band-style game is over, I predict. I doubt they'll stop selling songs in DLC and track packs, but I don't see another new-peripheral release in the future, except maybe for a real guitar/keyboard/drumset, similar to the Squier Strat, except cheaper.
 
This means Harmonix is probably going to have to branch out and make more innovative games. And I have no doubt they'll manage, seeing as they created a bunch of the best games out now.
 
 
Oh, and Activision did kill it for Harmonix. If there weren't 15 guitar hero games, you think people really would have had a problem buying more Rock Band stuff?
 
The release date of RB3 might also be contributing to poor sales, as well. I mean, think of how many regular games came out over the last month. For the $120 or $200 or even $300 you'd be spending on RB3 with new peripherals, you could get at least 2 or 3 brand new, full games. People probably just aren't willing to drop the money, or maybe don't even have it. I know that's why I don't have RB3 yet.

I wonder how this is going to affect everything being that Rock Band u are supposed to be able to transfer everything from game to game? I hope this is not the end for Rock Band or Dance Central I would be truly sad.

Anyone say Activision

Come on Microsoft you have the money, you have the technology *dance central* and you need an exclusive! come on!!!!

inb4 Rock Band: Warriors of Rock

Thank goodness.  I hated giving money to MTV.

" @BananaKid said:

" Music games are not selling and Rock Band 3 is, for a music game, pretty inaccessible. I'm not super surprised. "

Have you played Guitar Hero? That's the definition of an inaccessible music game. "

As long as Kotick doesnt get his mits on them i dont care who buys them, last thing we need is his greedy ass grinding them any further into the ground.  Its a shame to see all the hard work Harmonix have been doing getting a game up to this standard only to watch them be cast aside, i hope its not the end for them, we may never see that crazy cool guitar ive been waiting on....

" @FreakAche said:

" @BananaKid said:

" Music games are not selling and Rock Band 3 is, for a music game, pretty inaccessible. I'm not super surprised. "

Have you played Guitar Hero? That's the definition of an inaccessible music game. "

What would you say makes Guitar Hero inaccessible? "

Am I alone in thinking that this is kind of ridiculous. I mean it's understandable that the business decision to buy them for SO much money and pay the heads SO much in royalties was a miscalculation by MTV's part, but I'm not sure why they'd sell them off. The games are good, they are bringing in DECENT revenue, I just don't understand. Maybe they aren't selling as well as they did when Rock Band one came out but how much did they expect to accrue after EVERYONE had plastic instruments? theres only so much that market can take. Why not just have harmonix make something else? I don't get it.

" @ajamafalous said:

" @FreakAche said:

" @BananaKid said:

" Music games are not selling and Rock Band 3 is, for a music game, pretty inaccessible. I'm not super surprised. "

Have you played Guitar Hero? That's the definition of an inaccessible music game. "

What would you say makes Guitar Hero inaccessible? "

It's got much less genre variety in it's soundtrack and DLC. That, and the charts are generally much more complicated (with the exception of Rock Band 3's Pro Mode). "