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BuddyC · Feb 12, 2007

Over at Game|Life, Kohler's got a nice interview with Alex Rigopulos, CEO of Harmonix. It's very very interesting and well worth the read, but the most interesting part is probably his admission that yes, Harmonix has digitally distributed games in the works. In short, duh, but also, hooray! Just tweak Amplitude some (feel free to contact me for suggestions) and throw in a wealth of downloadable content.

For me, the great promise of the next gen consoles, I mean, computer power is awesome. Everyone's going to have a lot of fun with that. But the thing that I'm more excited about than anything else is digital delivery. Because as soon as you can be surfing through a bunch of games, and something looks vaguely intriguing for some reason, you can press a button, get a free demo, and try it out. And all of a sudden marketing games like Frequency and Amplitude and other experimental games that don't usually fit in a category or have a license attached to them is going to get a lot more feasible. And I think marketing games that are priced at five dollars or ten dollars is going to get a lot more feasible. It's impossible at retail.

There's also a lot more in there about Guitar Hero and how Guitar Hero II 360 will be the last Harmonix-developed GH. Seriously, check it out. Here's the link again, in case you're lazy:

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/02/harmonix_workin.html#more

A few further tidbits can then be found in coverage of Rigopulos' DICE presentation, which includes both this awesome chart of Harmonix's profits across the past 11 years and also news that Frequency sold "mouse nuts."

monchi-kun · Feb 12, 2007

could a world w/o publishers be too far behind? power-shift to developers imminent!!!!

Beer Monkey · Feb 12, 2007

This would be awesome. Keep the online/headset support and I'm there. I'd even buy extra songs.

Now how about Rez, with a true 480p mode like the Dreamcast version.

monchi-kun said:
could a world w/o publishers be too far behind? power-shift to developers imminent!!!!

The download-only future and the 50GB-game future are not compatible. We can have both but if these huge games that are too big for DVD have a future, so do publishers.

Bebpo · Feb 12, 2007

beermonkey@tehbias said:
This would be awesome. Keep the online/headset support and I'm there. I'd even buy extra songs.

Now how about Rez, with a true 480p mode like the Dreamcast version.

The download-only future and the 50GB-game future are not compatible. We can have both but if these huge games that are too big for DVD have a future, so do publishers.

Wii2 = 480p downloadable game service?

kenta · Feb 12, 2007

I saw that chart earlier and it made me scratch my head... What happened in 2004 that made their profits jump? Late 2005 is when GH was released and it sold gangbusters throughout 2006 followed by GH2 doing amazing in December, so that all makes sense... but 2004 is a mystery to me

Edit: Or was that when their EyeToy game came out?

BuddyC · Feb 12, 2007

kenta said:
I saw that chart earlier and it made me scratch my head... What happened in 2004 that made their profits jump? Late 2005 is when GH was released and it sold gangbusters throughout 2006 followed by GH2 doing amazing in December, so that all makes sense... but 2004 is a mystery to me

Edit: Or was that when their EyeToy game came out?

Yea, 2004 sounds right for the EyeToy game. Harmonix also handled some of the Karaoke Revolution games, though I'm unsure of the dates regarding those.

kenta · Feb 12, 2007

BuddyC said:
Yea, 2004 sounds right for the EyeToy game. Harmonix also handled some of the Karaoke Revolution games, though I'm unsure of the dates regarding those.

Ah, I see. I've only known Harmonix for their Frequency/Amplitude/GH games so I'm out of touch in that regard

But it's really really nice to see all their hard work finally pay off and I'm glad they're getting great support from MTV. Can't wait to hear about their next project

Rlan · Feb 12, 2007

monchi-kun said:
could a world w/o publishers be too far behind? power-shift to developers imminent!!!!

I would have thought so, but they're still being a bit weird about it. The Boom Boom Rocket game is being developed by Bizzare, but published by EA on the Xbox. EA had the idea, but surely it would be simpler for EA to make it themselves.

kenta · Feb 12, 2007

Oh man the closing line has me absolutely wet:

WN: You make it sound like you guys were the ones who walked out of the [Red Octane] deal. Rather than the other way around.

AR: Yeah. I'm sure Activision has their own view of events, which I won't challenge. You can draw your own conclusions. Certainly from our perspective, it was a matter of us just having to dedicate ourselves fully to the new projects that we have on the way. Because they're just ambitious and gnarly and we had to focus.

Seriously just ffffffffffff I want to know what he's talking about

Community Forum · Feb 12, 2007

Amplitude is so awesome. <3 Harmonix! I am so excited to see what they are up to next.

ram · Feb 12, 2007

BuddyC said:
Yea, 2004 sounds right for the EyeToy game. Harmonix also handled some of the Karaoke Revolution games, though I'm unsure of the dates regarding those.

fits more the karaoke revo games, which sold good in north america. the eyetoy game "antigrav" did bomb hard - sadly.

BuddyC · Feb 12, 2007

ram said:
fits more the karaoke revo games, which sold good in north america. the eyetoy game "antigrav" did bomb hard - sadly.

I don't know if I'd consider it sad that AntiGrav bombed (alright gameplay with a very lacking, very tedious design), but yea, I could see the Karaoke Revolution providing that jump. Does anyone have a list of which entries Harmonix developed and when they released?

Sage00 · Feb 12, 2007

So Neversoft will be doing GH 1980s?

Safe Bet · Feb 12, 2007

kenta said:
Oh man the closing line has me absolutely wet:

Seriously just ffffffffffff I want to know what he's talking about

Perhaps they were unwilling to go the "Let's milk this mother****er till it drys up and won't give no more boys!" route the GH franchise seems set to take.

BuddyC · Feb 12, 2007

Sage00 said:
So Neversoft will be doing GH 1980s?

Sounds like Neversoft will be handling everything Guitar Hero from here on out.

Seth C · Feb 12, 2007

Okay, but when does GHII 360 come out? That's really the only important thing. It was supposed to be next month, right? Do we still not have a date for it?

SamBishop · Feb 12, 2007

BuddyC said:
Does anyone have a list of which entries Harmonix developed and when they released?

Sure, why not? Harmonix did all the releases up though the country one, and I'm fairly sure they worked a little with Blitz on KR American Idol (all their old HMX venues are still in and the art design and stuff like EyeToy support is still in the game). Anyhoo:

Karaoke Revolution - 11/05/2003
Karaoke Revolution Volume 2 - 07/13/2004
Karaoke Revolution Volume 3 - 12/12/2004
Karaoke Revolution Party - 11/08/2005
CMT Presents: Karaoke Revolution Country - 03/21/2006

Good Lord, they were squirting those things out faster than the target audience for KR Country has kids, weren't they?

krypt0nian · Feb 12, 2007

This is honestly the best news I've heard in a while!

Harmonix = LOVE

Cookie Monster · Feb 12, 2007

SamBishop said:
Sure, why not? Harmonix did all the releases up though the country one, and I'm fairly sure they worked a little with Blitz on KR American Idol (all their old HMX venues are still in and the art design and stuff like EyeToy support is still in the game). Anyhoo:

Karaoke Revolution - 11/05/2003
Karaoke Revolution Volume 2 - 07/13/2004
Karaoke Revolution Volume 3 - 12/12/2004
Karaoke Revolution Party - 11/08/2005
CMT Presents: Karaoke Revolution Country - 03/21/2006

Good Lord, they were squirting those things out faster than the target audience for KR Country has kids, weren't they?

They were really cranking them for a while. But the year gap between 3 and Party is where they really polished the hell out of the interface. The Xbox version in particular is instantly playable and approachable, whereas previous versions (on the PS2) had waaaay too much loading, etc. going on.

And put me down for the Frequency/Amplitude lovin'. Harmonix got me hooked on Freezepop, and they continue to sneak their tracks into all of their games. I hope they keep that tradition up.

SaggyMonkey · Feb 12, 2007

I tried playing the PS2 version of Amplitude with the Sixaxis and it was pretty horrible thanks to the mushy L2 and R2 triggers. Not all that excited about a PSN version.

BuzzJive · Feb 12, 2007

Great interview CK. I can't wait to hear more about the next Harmonix projects.

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