Guitar Hero and Rock Band creator Harmonix announced this morning that its splitting with parent company Viacom, and "returning to [its] roots" by going independent. Before we tell you anything else, know this: as promised, "the DLC schedule marches on for Rock Band, we will continue our support of previously released titles and we're hard at work on some unannounced projects that we think you're going to be pumped about," Harmonix rep John Drake said in a statement on the dev's forums.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed in the official press release from Viacom, but the publisher has been looking for a chance to sell off Harmonix since at least mid-November. In Harmonix' eyes, the partnership is ending amicably, with Drake continuing, "Viacom and MTV Networks have been an amazing home for us over the past 4 years. It's where we launched both Rock Band and Dance Central, worked with The Beatles, Green Day, AC/DC, The Who and thousands of other artists. We want to take a moment to thank everyone in that organization who helped make these awesome games possible."
Viacom has responded to claims this morning from Harmonix shareholders that the company avoided paying out bonuses to the developers of the Rock Band series. Viacom of course denies it dodged any obligations, and says instead that the representative for Harmonix's shareholders, Walter Winshall, was offered agreements that included big payouts for the developer but "spurned" those, hoping for a bigger reward later. That reward never came, says Viacom, and Winchell is allegedly lashing out with this lawsuit for not meeting his shareholders' expectations.
That doesn't quite cover the other allegation in the lawsuit against Viacom, which claims that it set up an agreement with EA on the Rock Band brand that benefited its own interests rather than those of Harmonix (by doing things like trading advertising sales on MTV rather than passing on profits to the developers). Proof on that allegation, one way or the other, will have to come out in court -- if this lawsuit goes that far.
Gamasutra reports that a group of ex-shareholders of Harmonix, including company founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, has filed a lawsuit against Viacom. The group accuses Viacom of avoiding performance-based bonuses for the Rock Band franchise, which the company first published in 2007 after acquiring Harmonix in 2006.
Specifically, Viacom's acquisition deal stated 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. To put things in perspective, the Rock Band franchise surpassed $1 billion in sales by March of 2009, and that was just in North America.
The shareholder suit alleges that Viacom attempted to manipulate Harmonix's earn-out payments by negotiating a deal with EA that benefitted Viacom instead of Harmonix. Specifically, the shareholder group claims that Viacom ignored the opportunity to lower EA's distribution cost -- in effect raising potential Rock Band profits -- as part of a deal to continue distribution. Instead, the company allegedly made a deal that would see EA purchase millions in advertising from MTV, thus benefitting its parent company, Viacom.
It's evidently a pretty hairy situation, especially in light of Viacom's recent decision to sell Harmonix entirely. We've reached out to Harmonix for comment.
Next week's Rock Band DLC celebrates the spirit of the holidays with John Lennon & Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" and the Caesars' "Jerk it Out."
Check out all of next week's individual tracks after the break.
Amazon's on day 17 of its festival of discounts, ringing in the ultimate day with savings on music games across the board. We'll get right to what you need to know: Kidz Bop Dance Party The Video Game for Nintendo Wii is going for just $24.99! Okay, okay, yes, Rock Band 3 is also on sale for just $39.95 -- not to mention The Beatles: Rock Band going for a paltry $14.
The sale runs until the end of business today, so get on that soon if you're looking to snag a heavily discounted copy of "the greatest rhythm game ever made." (Nice hyperbole, reviewers! Pfft.)
#rockbandnetwork
Truly terrible arcade-inspired album Pac-Man Fever is coming to Rock Band Network next year, letting Rock Band owners relive the 1982 Buckner & Garcia classic from the comfort of their plastic instruments. More »
If you want to rock, first you have to pay your dues. To Best Buy.
Last week, Best Buy announced that it would be exclusively selling the Rock Band 3 Squier Stratocaster before the peripheral's previously announced March release date. Now, according to the retailer, it'll be the only place to go for the $280 guitar after that, as well. In a brief statement received by Joystiq today, Best Buy said that it would be "the exclusive retailer of the Rock Band 3 Squier when it goes on sale in stores on March 1."
Pre-orders for the instrument (which requires the MIDI PRO-Adapter for use with the game) will be offered beginning tomorrow, December 15, both in-store and on BestBuy.com.
Gawd bless Long Island boys and their capacity for spite, for without it we wouldn't be graced with Billy Joel's greatest hits as Rock Band DLC next week. The story goes that the piano man had his people open the conversation of being part of the video game after a critic noted such a thing would be a travesty. So, pour a bottle of red, a bottle of white, and rock out to the legend's greatest hits, because only the good die young.
Also, just to test if we have Billy Joel powers: Heaven forbid anyone should ever make a new Freedom Fighters or Alpha Centauri, that would be a sin against gaming!
Move on out past the break for the full track list.
Best Buy has informed us that it will exclusively offer the Rock Band 3 Squier Stratocaster "controller" (also known as "the real guitar") before the previously announced March 1 release date. Just how early Best Buy will be selling the guitar has yet to be confirmed, but the retailer claims to have the exclusive on the device "through March, 2011," perhaps pushing back the availability of the guitar from other retailers.
Best Buy will begin taking pre-orders for the "pro" peripheral on December 15, both in-store and online. Don't forget, you need a MIDI Pro Adapter to use this guitar with Rock Band 3. To use it like a regular guitar, you need ... an amp!
Ready to turn your totally sweet keytar into a totally sweet game controller? Mad Catz announced that the PS3 and Wii versions of the Rock Band 3 MIDI Pro Adapter, which allow use of MIDI keyboards, drum kits, and, eventually, the Rock Band 3 Squier Stratocaster, are headed to retail now. The Xbox 360 version, according to the announcement, is expected to ship "imminently" in limited quantities, to Best Buy stores.
However, Amazon still shows the release date for all three versions as December 26, and Best Buy shows only the PS3 version in stock. We've asked Mad Catz to help clear it all up for us, but it's likely most of you won't need one of these until the March release of the Stratocaster controller anyway.
#harmonix
Including a new instrument and pro modes in Rock Band 3 means Harmonix gets to release updated old music along with the new stuff, as is the case with next week's 13 songs from classic rock group Queen. More »
Next week's Rock Band DLC will be two track packs that are all Queen. One pack includes some Rock Band 3 upgraded tracks from Lego Rock Band, along with some lesser-ish known ditties, while the other is an extrabonanza of the band's most popular songs (which you might already own) reworked for RB3. That means: harmonies!
So, if singing like Freddie Mercury wasn't already hard enough, you're really gonna have to work as a team to nail those tracks properly. You are the champions, my friends. The full DLC track details are posted after the break.
At some point today, PS3 Rock Band 3 users will be prompted to download a mandatory title update -- the Xbox 360 patch is coming "in the near future". The first of two planned updates resolves some persistent glitches in the game, including freezes that take place during the amp loading vignette and when messing around with eyebrows in the character creator. " All eyebrows are now safe," the forum thread assures us.
Additionally, an exploit where players could constantly pause mid-song to inflate score has been addressed in the update. Now any performance during a song that's been paused multiple times won't have its score reported. Also, we reluctantly point out that one of the more dreaded issues, the PS3 keyboard audio glitch, is not included in today's update. Harmonix has acknowledged the issue and is looking into a fix.
#musicgames
Rock Band and Guitar Hero aren't the sensations they used to be. That doesn't mean they're bad. Not Rock Band 3. But they're not the cultural phenomenons they once were. That's temporary, according to a man who should know. More »
So, next week's Rock Band DLC will include a Lynyrd Skynyrd track pack. Now, fun fact: Every time Lynyrd Skynyrd was typed in this post, I had to look up how it was spelled, out of some paranoid compulsion that I'd spelled it wrong. I wonder if "Lynyrd Skynyrd" is the music writer's version of the game industry's classic spell-anoia name: EA CEO John R-I-C-C-I-T-I-E-L-L-O.
Accompanying the "Sweet Home Alabama" band, who apparently formed in Florida, are singles from .38 Special and Bad Company. The full DLC track details are posted after the break.
This coming Friday is known in America as Black Friday, the day when millions spend their post-Thanksgiving Day off shopping for Christmas presents (and thus retailers all get to make sure they end the year "in the black"). In a more rebellious circle, it's also known as Buy Nothing Day, an anti-consumerism protest against a culture of spending. And here's one more celebration: Friday will also be known as "Record Store Day," a day to frequent your local record store and keep it alive in the face of the digital music revolution.
The music lovers at Harmonix are on board with that last one: The Rock Band 3 developer is offering free song tokens at participating record stores, and the purchase of any CD or record at those stores will earn you a free download of The Doors' "Roadhouse Blues" to play in Rock Band 3. The deal is only while supplies last, unfortunately -- you'll need an actual card with a code to download the song.
Good luck to everyone who goes out to find one. We'll be enjoying Friday's other celebration, Mongolian Independence Day. Where's our DLC for that, Harmonix? Road House.
If this sounds like a familiar tune, it is: Music game sales have plummeted for a second-straight year. But this year, the tune is way more off key.
According to analysis by Gamasutra, which looked at the period from January through October in each of the past three years, music game revenues in the U.S. have taken a phenomenal nose dive from an epic height of $1.6 billion in 2008 to where they've landed today: under $250 million for the year. "Short of a Christmas miracle," concludes analyst Matt Matthews, "music games won't break $400 million for all of 2010."
John Lennon's "Imagine" album will be next week's Rock Band DLC. The acclaimed set of songs joins the title track, which is one of the Rock Band 3 on-disc songs. The album's DLC launch comes about a month after the worldwide celebration of the 70th anniversary of Lennon's birthday.
No need to imagine the album's track list, it can be found after the break.
A clean space is a rocking place, so if Rock Band peripherals are taking up precious living room real estate, perhaps one of LevelUp Gears' ottomans could be a solution. The units are solid wood, with velcro guitar loops and other touches designed to keep your plastic music peripherals tidy.
The storage units are available in two versions: Back in Black and Skull and Snakes. According to a LevelUp representative, the Back in Black version is available now at Costco for $90. The Skull and Snakes, which is considerably more expensive for no discernible reason, is $180 at Kohls.com and $200 on JCPenny.com. Of course, if you're looking for a cheap storage solution, a 20-gallon trash can should also do the trick.
#hamonix
Harmonix might be up on the selling block, but Rock Band 3 is stayin' alive, with a six pack of tunes dropping next week from the Bee Gees. You shall now overflow with joy. More »
Some big news hit developer Harmonix this week as parent company Viacom revealed plans to sell the company, but that shouldn't affect the weekly Rock Band DLC releases for the time being -- they're stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Next week's DLC offerings deliver a six-pack from the Bee Gees that includes several of the band's best-known hits.
Accompanying the brothers as they deliver disco dreams are B.B. King and Procol Harum -- yeah, that's quite a combination. Now, jive talkin' turkeys, check out next week's full DLC track details after the break.
