Activision buys Harmonix, turns them into the Guitar Hero and Dance Hero team.
Harmonix Music Systems
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Harmonix Music Systems are the creative developers behind many music / rhythm games. They were founded on March 1, 1995 in Cambridge Massachusetts by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy. They were acquired by Epic Games in November 2021.
Viacom Is Selling Off Harmonix
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.
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.
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.
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.
" I think it was Beatles Rock Band which kind of cemented it. That said, who would people prefer to buy HMX? Activision? EA? ...Apple? "Apple Corps. They should buy Harmonix and force them to make Beatles games all the time. :D
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.
Once again MTV is turning away from musicYeah, I just assumed the Harmonix games were far too music related for MTV's liking.
" @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 appreciate your Jersey Shore joke, but Viacom is waaaay bigger than MTV. They own dozens of TV channels and compete in many different markets and industries. MTV games or whatever was just a bit of branding for their games arm.
Some times not enough profit, in the long run can in actuality be a loss. You can bet they are worth a lot more than $175 million now though.
@ProfessorEss:
http://i.imgur.com/PAOgi.png
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.
Come on Microsoft you have the money, you have the technology *dance central* and you need an exclusive! come on!!!!
" @BananaKid said:What would you say makes Guitar Hero inaccessible?" 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: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)." @BananaKid said:What would you say makes Guitar Hero inaccessible? "" 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. "
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:I wouldn't say that less genre variety would make the game less accessible. Though you're right about the charts, though that too may be a product of the genres they spotlight." @FreakAche said: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). "" @BananaKid said:What would you say makes Guitar Hero inaccessible? "" 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. "
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