Tag Archives: Alex Rigopulos

Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos has said the company is in the process of considering “a pretty dramatic departure,” for future iterations of its Rock Band label.

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Harmonix once promised that it would bring the Rock Band franchise to the squealing fans of Japan. That was in 2008, and since then, both Harmonix and co-developer Q Entertainment haven’t really done much else about it. Now, Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos has spoken about what happened, explaining – among other things – that “there were a couple of significant challenges”.

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First spied as a trademark filing back in July, the Massachusetts-based Rock Band and Dance Central developer has discussed its first fully-fledged iOS title, VidRythm.

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Harmonix boss Alex Rigopulos has said that Dance Central “outperformed” Rock Band 3 at retail.

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Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos has hinted at new products in the works, possibly in motion gaming.

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Harmonix boss Alex Rigopulos has told MCV it’s aiming for a bigger market share in Europe with Rock Band.

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Harmonix boss Alex Rigopulos has told Edge he’d like to revisit the company’s first two titles Frequency and Amplitude in the future.

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Harmonix has said there is still plenty of innovation left for the Rock Band franchise.

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Harmonix has released a video for Rock Band 3, showing off the big keyboard debut complete with commentary from the developers.
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Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos has said that the recently announced Rock Band 3 will be a “big step forward” for the series when it launches later this year.

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This is how easy it can be. Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy have told CNN that Harmonix’s initial cash input was peanuts scrounged from personal contacts.

“We raised an initial round of capital from friends and family, meager by today’s standards – $100,000 – but it lasted us a whole year because I was still living like a grad student,” said Egozy.

He added: “Somewhat selfishly, we just wanted to keep working on the cool things we were doing at the media lab. Our revenue was pretty much zero for five years.”

Rigopulos lived with his parents in the early years.

And look at them now, eh? Hit the link for the full thing. Note that Harmonix was founded in 2995: its success is the product of demonic time travel. Thanks, supererogatory.

Harmonix boss Alex Rigopulos played The Beatles: Rock Band to a party crowd on top of Microsoft’s Cologne offices the other night. We filmed it. For a laugh.

Live the rooftop Beatles German plastic instrument dream right along with us by hitting the link.

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Guitaroo Man dev legend Mitsuru Nakamura and Harmonix boss Alex Rigopulos have both given clear indications that instrumentless music games are on the way with a bomb, speaking at a GamesCom Microsoft after-party tonight.

“First of all it’s very, very exciting,” Nakamura said of Natal. “I think we all feel the same way,” he added, indicating the Rock Band boss, saying the Microsoft system “has the big potential” to “be the broadening interface” in the next wave of games.

“I think peripherals until now have tried to make the experience of making music a lot simpler,” he added.

“With Natal we’re try to [it] one step further” and let the player “feel empowered when they stand in front of the device.”

Rigopulos went further.

“I think an interface like that will change people perceptions of what games are, he said, saying Natal will, on a “very deep psychological level,” affect how people view games in general.

Molyneux up next. Fancy a bit of Milo?

Harmonix boss Alex Rigopulos said in Cologne tonight that creating Rock Band content is now just part and parcel of route to market for many serious musicians.

“It turns out that many major artists have taken advantage and are moving quickly to bring content to the platform,” said Rigopulos in a talk and Microsoft’s HQ in the city.

“Creating Rock Band levels is just part of what they do now.”

Rock Band Network, an open service to allow musicians to upload their own tracks for play by others was a measured move “in order to eliminate Harmonix as a bottleneck,” said the exec.

He banged on about Natal for a bit. Instrumentless Rock Band confirmed.

Harmonix founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy are to be given GDC’s Pioneer Award next month.

That’s what dreaming up Guitar Hero and Rock Band does for you.

According to GDC organizer Think Services, the Pioneer Award “celebrates those individuals responsible for developing a breakthrough technology, game concept, or gameplay design at a crucial juncture in video game history, paving the way for the many developers who followed them.”

Yay them. More on Gamespot.

In an interview with Ars, Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos said that EA’s The Beatles isn’t just licensing the band’s music, it’s about delivering the songs through a different medium: an “art object.”

“In the case of the Beatles, the licensing is, of course, complex, ” he said. “But what’s more complex in a product of that sort isn’t just the licensing of the music; we’re trying to create something that is an art object, that’s really an extension of the Beatle’s music into another medium.

“When that’s the case, it’s more than just a licensing question, you need sort of a creative resonance with all the principles involved, and really that was the most intricate part of the project: getting everyone who had a voice in this to understand the potential and feel good about what that potential was and coming together with a common vision about what the thing was going to be.

“It’s more than just a licensing challenge,” Rigopulos concluded.

Full interview through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking to CNN, Harmonix co-founder and CEO Alex Rigopulos has confirmed that – unlike Guitar Hero: World Tour – Rock Band 2 won’t feature the ability for people to make and upload their own music.

“We really felt like we wanted to do it right,” said Rigopulos. “We’re taking a radically different approach to that problem. It’s something we wanted to take more time to do it right. It’s actually something we’re not focused on in Rock Band 2. We’re really focused on other areas related to the music and bringing the community together.”

A new game specifically focused on music recording? More through the link.

As you can see here, Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy – the guys that spawned Harmonix’s Guitar Hero and Rock – have made the Time 100, coming in at 70. The duo are a far cry from Miyamoto in top position, obviously, but congrats to you, chaps. May you make plastic guitars for the masses for many moons to come.