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Media multinational announces plan to part with the studio, reclassify it as a “discontinued operation.”
In the past two months Harmonix has released Rock Band 3 and Dance Central. Both music games won rapt reviews for their innovative features, but apparently that wasn’t enough for parent company Viacom.
Embedded in its third quarter financial report, issued today, Viacom announced its net income plummeted plummeted from $463 million to $189 million, and that it plans to sell Harmonix. Further, the Boston-area developer will be henceforth known as a “discontinued operation.” Unfortunately, the company did not provide further specifics as to the rationale behind selling Harmonix.
According to a post on the official Rock Band forums by Harmonix’s community manager, Viacom’s announcement “does not affect the ongoing work at the studio as we continue to support our existing franchises, Rock Band and Dance Central.” Further, according to Harmonix, although Viacom is currently engaged in discussions with multiple buyers, it will continue to support Harmonix.
Once a more financially successful genre, the music game field has since largely fallen by the wayside. September’s Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock struck a sour note at retail, selling under 100,000 copies, and analysts are reassessing their outlooks based on the genre’s downward trend.
Viacom is one of the largest media conglomerates on the planet. Its main ties are attached to film and television, where it owns properties like Paramount Pictures, Comedy Central, and MTV.
For more on the two franchises’ recent entires, check out GameSpot’s review of Rock Band 3 and Dance Central.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“Viacom to sell Rock Band developer Harmonix” was posted by Eddie Makuch on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 08:40:32 -0800 -
March to glory.
PC strategy game Shogun 2: Total War will be released globally on 15th March 2011, SEGA’s announced.
Improvements have been made to the 3D battles and the tactical campaign map. There’s a brand new AI system inspired by the scriptures that influenced Japanese warfare, the Chinese “Art of War”, too.
Analysing this ancient text enabled the Creative Assembly to implement easy to understand yet deep strategical gameplay,” SEGA said.
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Yoostar 2 dev claims to use more.
Blitz Games claims to be getting nearly twice as much out of Kinect as everyone else. Those games you see on the shelves today – they’re using barely a third of what the new device can do.
“A lot of the games you’re seeing are using 20 to 30 per cent of what Kinect’s capable of,” Blitz Games’ Steve Stopps remarked to Eurogamer. “What we’re doing is using probably 50 to 60 per cent.
“What most developers are starting to do now is they’re realising that under the hood of what Kinect can do there’s a whole world of potential we’re only really just scratching.”
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Xbox 360 game feeds results into leagues.
A Kinect Sports Facebook app that sorts times set in the main Xbox 360 game into online leagues has been released.
Developed by Rare and Nzime, the Kinect Sports Facebook app uses your Xbox Live gamertag to compare your results with those of friends and randoms in Kinect Sports leagues.
You can join a weekly international league, create your own league and watch videos of your performances uploaded from Kinect Sports.
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Government news site says Activision’s shooter glorifies attempts to kill Fidel Castro.An article on news site Cubadebate claims that Call Of Duty: Black Ops is “doubly perverse” for the way it represents an assassination attempt on former Cuban president Fidel Castro, and for stimulating “sociopathic attitudes in North American children and adolescents."
The controversy stems from a scenario in the game that sees players infiltrate a Cuban stronghold in Havana to try to assassinate a young Fidel Castro.
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“Publishers are creating a monster.”
At least two “major” shops will demand publishers remove Steam functionality from PC games, a new report claims.
If publishers refuse, those retailers will not sell PC games with Steam integration at all.
“Key retailers” fear Valve’s digital service has a “monopoly” on the download market, according to MCV.
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Beats Modern Warfare 2.
Call of Duty: Black Ops sold 5.6 million copies in the US and UK combined – in one day. That’s more than Modern Warfare 2’s opening record of 4.7 million copies.
Those sales generated $360 million for Activision. Modern Warfare 2 only made $310 million, scoff.
“There has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records for two consecutive years and we are on track to outperform last year’s five-day global sales record of $550 million,” commented Activision’s Bobby Kotick.
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Starbreeze alumni using id Tech 5.
ZeniMax Media – the company that owns Bethesda, id, Arkane and Tango – has bought another studio: MachineGames.
This developer was formed in 2009 by the founders of Starbreeze – the studio behind the Riddick games (Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena) and comic-book conversion The Darkness.
MachineGames is busy making a new game using the impressive id Tech 5 engine. Bethesda Softworks (not Bethesda Game Studios – the developer part) will publish, but for now all details on the project are held back.
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Can you afford Harmonix?
Viacom plans to sell Rock Band and Dance Central developer Harmonix.
No explanation was given in its financial report, but Rock Band 3, released last month, appears to have failed to achieve commercial success.
Official UK sales figures from UKIE revealed Rock Band 3 sold just 7386 units for the week ending 30th October in the UK.
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As beefy patch 1.4 arrives.
Today, PlayStation Home is transformed – big patch 1.4 has arrived. We knew that was coming, but we had no idea multiplayer LittleBigPlanet paintball was on its way.
More accurately, it’s a paintball shooting range called LittleBigPlanet Derby. That’s because the more targets you hit the further your horse-riding Sackboy moves across the screen.
You’re not supposed to play alone but with up to seven other people. It’s all very pretty in a LittleBigPlanet way, and the splattering paint literally adds plenty of colour.
