Media giant Viacom has announced that they plan on selling Harmonix, the Cambridge-based game developer responsible for Dance Central on Kinect and the Rock Band franchise.

The move comes on the heels of word that Harmonix has recorded its fourth straight year of loses, and that sales of music genre games like Rock Band and Activision’s rival Guitar Hero series (which was also created by Harmonix) in recent years. Just how bad are things for the developer? Viacom revealed in a regulatory filing that Harmonix had a net loss of $87 million on $362 million in revenue in 2009 and a net loss of $24 million on $678 million in revenue in 2008.

Harmonix has many potential suiters for a buyout, including Electronic Arts, which has a long standing publishing deal with the firm, and Activision, who may look to reacquire the studio in an effort to regain a larger, nearly complete, portion of the music video game genre.

Stick with Blast Magazine for more on this developing story.

About The Author

Joe Sinicki is Blast's Executive Editor. He has an unhealthy obsession with Back to the Future and wears cheese on his head. Follow him on Twitter @BrewCityJoe

Leave a Reply