Tag Archives: viacom

Warner Bros. Interactive has been cited as a possible buyer for THQ assets, according to a report coming out of the firm’s US Bankruptcy Court proceedings in Delaware on January 4.

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An arbitrator has ordered former Harmonix parent company Viacom to hand over a portion of allegedly outstanding bonus payments.

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Snuggle up to this second batch of shorts.

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Viacom is asking for a refund. That is, the company has found that it over-paid Harmonix stockholders in anticipation of certain Rock Band-related earn-outs that never happened, and it would like its money back, please. How much? US$131 million.

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MCV reports that Rock Band publisher MTV Games has officially shut up shop.

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Rock Band 3′s ultimate accessory, the Fender Squier Stratocaster, is now available for pre-order in the US.

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Harmonix was sold by Viacom to investment group Columbus Nova for $49.99, All Things Digital is reporting.

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With Viacom getting out of the gaming business, and selling Harmonix off to the highest bidder, the move to exit the industry may put Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s intended videogame plans in jeopardy.

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Konami and Harmonix settled a patent dispute over Rock Band, according to court filings in Texas this week.

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Viacom has announced that worldwide sales of Rock Band have decreased by seven percent during the quarter ending March 31, 2010.

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Rumors floating about the net earlier in the day had Harmonix working on a Hendrix-centric Rock Band title.

Turns out, that is not the case.

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MTV Games’ parent company Viacom plans on to seek a partial refund on the $150 million in bonuses it paid Harmonix back in 2008.

Guess since music sales have slumped, it needs the money.

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EA’s confirmed its present deal with Viacom on all things Rock Band from MTV Games and Harmonix is only good for another month.

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Darren Richardson, president and CEO of Mad Katz, had told Kotaku that the reason the original Guitar Hero game only launched on PS2 was because the firm pulled out of doing a Xbox SKU due to a lawsuit between Harmonix and Konami.

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Viacom has said that its Harmonix and MTV game franchise, Rock Band, has been a a bit of a slow rummer, but that the series is finally picking up the pace.

It may possibly break even or become “slightly profitable” by the end of Q4 if Christmas sales are good, said CEO Philippe Daumann.

“The economics of our Rock Band franchise are improving, though not as quickly as we’d like,” he said during Viacom’s latest call to investors. “We had a great launch of The Beatles product but obviously at this time of year we await the holiday season to begin as the month of November unfolds. We will start putting in more marketing dollars together with our retail partners behind that product.

“We just have to be cautious given that we are entering, over the next several weeks, a retail season that will depend on how consumers spend their money generally. So we have to be cautious about how it is unfolding. Meanwhile we continue to manage that business with a close eye on inventory levels and with a greater focus on software.”

Music game sales in general are down in part due to high-priced bundles which are slower to gain momentum compared to stand alone discs.

More through GI.biz.

Guitar Hero 5 may be winning the battle of the bands, but you won’t find any gently weeping guitars over at Viacom.

“It’s been terrific. The sales have exceeded our internal expectations. In the first week we’ve sold about 25% of our inventory, and we’ve had tremendous excitement around this game. The reviews have been incredible… It really is a work of art. The game delivers in all respects and we think it’s going to have legs,” said Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman during a Goldman Sachs conference call.

Dauman also noted that, surprisingly enough, the most expensive Beatles SKU isn’t doing too shabbily, despite less-than-friendly economic conditions.

“The special limited edition set that we have priced at $249, with the Ringo drums, is selling really fast, and it looks like we’ll be selling out of that in November, so if any of you are interested in buying that you’d better hurry up,” he said.

More – including some of analyst Jesse Divnich trademark soothsaying – through the link.

Thanks, Industry Gamers.

MTV and Harmonix’s parent company, Viacom, has reported that sales of the Rock Band franchise are down this quarter “due to the soft retail environment”, which has directly impacted revenues for the company.

Q2 revenue dropped 8 percent to $1.97 billion with a 41 percent decline in revenue blamed on poor sales of Rock Band which saw a 12 percent decline in profit to $671 million in the Media Networks division.

Besides the “soft retail environment”, the loss was also attributed to lower advertising revenues and $16 million in severance charges.

Overall, quarterly revenues dropped 14 percent to $3.3 billion, and profit dropped 26 percent to $586 million.

Chief exec Philippe Dauman assured shareholders that the decline is “short-term”, and with Viacom’s “aggressive” cost management and the pending launch of The Beatles: Rock Band in September, a “brighter future” is in the cards.

More through the press release below.

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MTV has promoted Shane Satterfield, former GameTrailers editor-in-chief, to Spike’s VP of content, reports GI.biz.

Satterfield will continue to head GameTrailers, but new responsibilities include accruing new content for the Spike website.

“I am excited to welcome Shane into this new role,” said Jon Slusser, senior VP. “He will bring his creativity, leadership skills and proven success to Spike.com as he has to GameTrailers.”

Satterfield will also work closely with Viacom’s marketing department.

Viacom said this morning during its Q4 earnings call that Rock Band 2 sold close to two million units across all platforms since its September release.

As nice as these numbers sound, they were lower than Viacom was expecting.

“While we remain enthusiastic about the future franchise potential for Rock Band, the impact of a slowing economy dampened consumer purchases of videogames in the quarter, resulting in lower sales of Rock Band than we had originally hoped,” said CFO Tom Dooley.

International sales for the game were $462 million, and the Rock Band franchise as a whole has shipped over 10 million units since its November 2007 release.

Edge reports that Viacom showed an overall 69 percent drop in net earnings to $173 million for Q4, with $454 million being spent on restructuring charges.

Quarterly revenues were $4.2 billion.

The Beatles game eventually went to MTV because, from the sound of it, Sony Music wasn’t going to get what it wanted. And what it wanted, probably, was money.

“It was presented as if they were doing the music business a favor,” Sony/ATV CEO Martin Bandier told Reuters.

“It’s true you can choose other types of music, and somewhere along the line someone’s going to do it for free for the exposure … When it comes to the Beatles, the leverage changes. We’re very happy with the terms of our arrangement with MTV.”

MTV’s understanding of what Sony was after ultimately led to a “very rich” deal.

Game’s out at the end of next year.

Thanks, Kotaku.