Viacom confirms sale of struggling Harmonix

I was just reading this at WSJ. They say that the company isn’t really profitable for them anymore.
As WSJ quotes “The company didn’t say in a statement why a sale is occurring, but the move resulted in Viacom recording a $299 million loss from discontinued operations. The lion’s share of that is write-downs.”

@2 Ahh I see. Well that means more freedom for Harmonix if it gets picked up right?

@2 – Link to the WSJ article?

http://online.wsj.com/article/APb65076aa2e9d4d248c02a3218ce39875.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703848204575608160054525710.html

edit: ah 5 beat me to it. But yeah that’s the one

Weren’t there rumours that Activision were going to buy them the other day? Or did I dream that?

Sadly the one with the full “company didn’t say in a statement” bit is subscribers only.

@Blerk: EA is probably a better fit given Activision own Guitar Hero.

EA or Microsoft will buy them.

Depends if Acti want to amalgamate everything back into one uberfranchise or not, I guess. Would EA even want them given the horrible Rock Band 3 sales so far?

Unless Microsoft buy them and make them do Dance Central sequels forever.

Updated.

Harsh!

@10 They actually have a 3DS game that is in development.

So MS buy? I don’t think so.

Why not? Rare do DS games.

Note that I don’t actually think Microsoft will buy them.

“Would EA even want them given the horrible Rock Band 3 sales so far?”

Ultrabargain price innit. Buyers market.

Not ever properly launching the game in Europe probably has a little something to do with the bad sales.

Not surprised by the poor sales in Europe. If you look at it, Rock Band 1 had French and German songs in it, but neither RB2 or 3 did keep that trend.

Also, it’s a little thing but can be significant : in RB1 and 2 solo mode you could choose to be a European band, and this has been removed in RB3 where you have no choice but to be American.

After that, do they say that they’re focusing on Europe ?

ZeniMax? :p

I love the Rock band games and i hate GH. The reasons i can see for the bad sales is the pro guitar with strings isnt out til March, no one could get hold of the bundles with the keyboard and the button pro guitar wasnt out either straight away.
To top it off, you bring out this game with expensive instruments a week before Black ops, biggest selling game of the year and Kinect. Who has enough money to get all these.
What they should have done is waited, keep rock band players interested by making good DLC that could have pro stuff etc so ppl can build up a collection ready for RB3 and their new pro instruments in March. We got xmas coming up, job cuts, so many other new games coming. By March ppl should have some money back in their pockets.
I hope non of this selling etc means anything changes for RB inless it makes more dlc etc.

To be honest, despite Dance Central I don’t think MS is best poised to buy Harmonix. There’s the issue of licensing all the tracks, renewals of license and things like that to take care of. Not that they couldn’t but it’s not something they usually invest in (esp after the huge marketing blowout for Kinect and the win7phones).

It’s most likely to be a company that likes to do these sort of deals or owns a good music library themselves (Since the thing they’d like to do is reach profitability).

Didn’t Apple/Steve Jobs want to buy a company? This is pretty much right up his alley in that sense. WBIE might also buy it. Possibly SE but I think they’re not on a buying spree at the moment. Sony Music could think of it as could Dreamworks. Even Acti-Blizz to maintain monopoly.
If EA doesn’t buy it, it’s probably the end of the ‘Rock Band’ brand most likely and whatever game that comes up next would be under a new name.

This is what happens when a company focuses it attention on 1 platform (360) and support the others (PS3 and Wii) well enough. Less focus on the need for new perphierals should have been a key feature for RB3 to improve market share against GH.

So, will RB3 be cheap soon?

@22 You could just buy the company

“Hi Guys:

We’ve seen a lot of questions pop up in response to Viacom’s statements this morning regarding their intention to sell Harmonix. We’ve posted this thread to respond to those questions. Please keep your forum conversations regarding this matter in this thread. We’ll check in throughout the day as we’re able.

This morning’s announcement does not affect the ongoing work at the studio as we continue to support our existing franchises, Rock Band and Dance Central. As stated earlier, Viacom is in discussions with several potential buyers and will continue to fully support the business until a sale is completed.

If you have additional questions or concerns, please post them in this thread. If you’re a member of the media with inquiry, you can reach out to us at press@harmonixmusic.com. (Please don’t email this address if you’re not from a press outlet).

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?208088-Response-to-Questions-about-Viacom-Selling-Harmonix “

Yay does this finally signal the death of these boring music games?

Man what did they expect? They’ve been milked so much it’s embarrassing…

@25: Dull war FPS games have been milked to death but they are still being made.

@26, but they don’t carry triple figure price tags.

Please…no more RB games….