Harmonix completes MBO, goes indie

I have two words for this.

HOLY FUCK!

This is great news.

So what does this mean for us, release wise?

Will Harmonix have the money to create games for every console, will they even release at retail?

Do they own the rights to Rock Band/Dance Central?

Could we see a Rock band platform released on XBLA? An ‘À la carte’ model where we buy the songs we want so they don’t have to go through the hassle of sending stuff to retail?

I just would like to know/see what this means for those plastic instruments?

I need drums like no ones bizz, but can’t afford the price of the new drum kits. Esp at xmass time, esp scince I am the only one that uses ‘em in this house.

I’d like cheaper/affordable ones, even if all they did was rerelease the RB2 kit.

Hurrah for Harmonix,this is great news a real Christmas miracle.

Just like to take this opportunity to wish all VG24/7ers a big and happy Merry Crimbo (or other suitable celebration). I’ve had a great year here and I’m looking forward to the next.

TTFN

Graham

Get in! Keeping it punk!!

That’s great news.

Viacom is laughing all the way to the bank cutting the dead flesh off its ass and actually getting anything in return for it.

It’ll be interesting to see what they do. The “big” games will most likely be out of the window now, but they weren’t profitable anyway. A return to the Frequencies and Amplitudes of old for a while, perhaps? Something downloadable?

Good for them. With the rise of partners programs from most of the major publishers, I get the feeling that as an industry, we’re really beginning to appreciate the talent behind the games.

Great Christmas Eve news to wake up to anyway.

The more I see these partner programs, the more the gaming industry starts to look like the movie industry.

But that’s not entirely a bad thing. These kind of partner programs allow for a lot more diversity and creativity than the standard approach.

I would imagine E.A. owns the Rock Band franchise label? So I can’t see that franchise going anywhere any time soon.

No, Harmonix does. EA Partners, if I remember correctly, only published it and distributed it.

@11, i would have thought Viacom but more directly MTV owned it, anyone know?

@12

Really?

“Harmonix has confirmed that it’s bought itself from Viacom, and will now operate independently.”

First freaking sentence.

@13, you’re a moron, read the first 3 digits in my sentence, ‘@’ means at, & ’11′ was Johnny Cullen & JC was responding to O’Connor about this sentence “I would imagine E.A. owns the Rock Band franchise label?” with “No, Harmonix does. EA Partners, if I remember correctly, only published it and distributed it.” NOW read my post over again & think about how stupid your post was…
I was implying that MTV who published Rock Band (EA distributed & co-published it) were more likely to own the Rock Band IP, but i could be wrong & JC right, O’Connor could be right though but i highly doubt that.

I have no idea why sites keep publishing this without mentioning actual, pertinent facts like:

- This deal was funded by a third-party investment group called Columbus Nova. So, they didn’t buy themselves out, they just weren’t picked up by a major game company like Activision or EA. They are operating independently as far as I can tell, but that does NOT mean they’re “going indie.” EA is probably still going to publish their games.

- They keep the rights to Rock Band (and Dance Central). It’s implied in the statement above about continuing to release DLC, but even without that, it’s a no-brainer. How could it possibly be in their interest to give up the rights to a game they just released and plan to support for years to come?

Thanks for the info, Jacob. Much appreciated.

@15 – CN’s just a capital firm. The only thing it manages is money. “Harmonix-SBE Holdings LLC” bought Harmonix with CN’s funding. I say so in the story. It is “independent and privately held,” as Drake said.