Harmonix "doing pretty good" with music licensing despite MTV break-up

With Harmonix breaking off from MTV Games, did you think there'd be any issues with music licensing for Rock Band or Dance Central from here on out? Doesn't sound like there will be.

Harmonix's John Drake has told VG247 it's "doing pretty good" with record labels in terms of licensing music for its games, despite breaking off from MTV and becoming an independent publisher again late last year.

He admitted, however, its relationship with the company was key for getting access to The Beatles for Beatles: Rock Band.

"We've had a lot of good relationships with publishers and record labels for a long time," Drake, the studio's comms boss, told us in Cologne last week at gamescom.

"Having MTV was huge for having access to people like The Beatles or any of those type of bands, but we're very much a known entity in the music space. We've had releases from Foo Fighters, Lady Gaga, Ozzy [Osbourne], Red Hot Chilli Peppers [for Rock Band DLC]"

He continued: "We've had all these huge releases in a row this summer, well after we've been done with our former relationship, so we're a lot stronger on the licensing part. And the songs on Dance Central 2 are unbelievable, so I think we're doing pretty good on the music side."

Harmonix's next game, Dance Central 2, launches on October 21 in Europe. Watch Drake and me "break it down" here.