Earlier this year, Viacom announced plans to sell off Cambridge-based Harmonix, creators of the Rock Band and Dance Central franchises. You didn’t expect it to get ugly did you?
Gamasutra reports that Harmonix founders, along with a group of now ex-shareholders have filed a lawsuit against Viacom for failing to pay on performance based incentives for the Rock Band franchise.
The lawsuit claims that the acquisition deal promised that Harmonix shareholders would be awarded with 3.5 times any gross profit of the Rock Band franchise over $32 million in 2007, a deal that Gamasutra states had “no cap.” A similar deal applied to 2008 for profits over $45 million. According to the suit, the shareholders allege that Viacom negotiated a deal with EA that intentionally raised Rock Band profits, but lessened what was to be received by Harmonix.
As of this writing, Viacom has yet to comment on the suit or the allegations.
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