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Harmonix Music Systems (or simply Harmonix) is an American video game development company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States. It is known for its many music video games.
Harmonix is perhaps best known as being the developer of Dance Central and Rock Band, as well as being the original developer of the Guitar Hero series before development moved to Neversoft and VicariousVisions.
Contents [hide]  * 1 History * 1.1 Formation * 1.2 Early titles * 1.3 Purchase by Viacom * 1.4 Sale by Viacom * 1.5 As an independent developer * 2 Employee bands * 2.1 Current members * 2.2 Ex-Employee Bands * 3 Games * 4 Patents portfolio * 5 References * 6 External links |
[edit] History
[edit] Formation
Harmonix was founded in 1995 byAlex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy who met while attending MIT.[1] Egozy was an electrical/computer engineer with an interest in music, while Rigopulos was a music composition major with an interest in programming; both met while working in the MIT Media Lab. After seeing a computer music generation system that could algorithmically create music on the fly, the two considered how one could use ajoystick to control the system, and set up a demonstration of the unit for the Lab, which gained interest from others in the Lab. The two realized that after graduation they would not be able to construct such niche systems in the industry, and chose to start their own company.[2] The company was built on the premise that the experience of performing music could become accessible to those who wouldotherwise have trouble learning a traditional instrument.[2]
The company was funded with about $100,000, and for the first five years, had nearly zero revenue.[2] The company's earliest product was The Axe: Titans of Classic Rock on PC CD-ROM. The Axe enabled consumers to easily perform unique instrumental solos by using a PC joystick. This product only sold about 300 copies, with Rigopulos and Egozyrealizing that people, while initially entranced by the game, lost interest after 15 minutes of playing with it.[2] Harmonix then designed "CamJam", which performed similar functions, this time using simple body gestures to trigger music sequences.[1] CamJam was utilized at Disney theme parks.[2][3] This led the two consider approaching entertainment businesses like Dave & Buster's to includetheir products, but they soon realized that this would be a year to a year-and-a-half effort, too long for their needs.[2] They then considered the entertainment industry in Japan, where in 1997, was taking off with the introduction of karaoke bars and music video games such as PaRappa the Rapper, Beatmania, and Dance Dance Revolution. They attempted to sell their CamJam equipment to theseentertainment centers but found little interest for it. They came to a realization that games like karaoke were popular not due through personal expression, but because they encouraged players to try to accurately recreate the songs through their actions.[2] These games also focused on bringing musical experiences to gamers through simple, understandable interfaces commonly found in games.[1] With thisrealization, the two returned to the United States and regrouped their company as a video game developer, though they had to let about 40% of their current staff go.[2]
[edit] Early titles
Harmonix' first major video game was FreQuency, with its development funded by Sony Computer Entertainment along with about $2 million in investments in the company. A key factor of Harmonix' contract withSony was that it was allowed to keep its intellectual property, which allowed for Harmonix to build on the game for its future endeavours.[2] The game's development began in 1999,[1][4] backed by a larger team at Harmonix, many of whom were musicians.[4] Featuring songs by a number of underground electronica artists, FreQuency allowed players to perform and remix a variety of music. The game was...