Microsoft favorite to buy Rock Band developer Harmonix?

[Joelcool7]

priteshmodi said:

I don't think what they do is "Music Games" completely. In fact I'd say they're more in the business of finding new ways to play. Sure all their games are music oriented but the other common factor is that they all provide unique experiences from the rest of the games out there. They like reinventing and re-establishing genres. Case: They made the original Guitar Heroes. After doing so twice they got tired of doing the same thing and decided to split off and make Rock Band; a similar game with an entirely new dynamic of playing as a team. They've only reinvented that further with the marketplace, improved instruments greater resembling their real counterparts and creative game modes. Now they come out with Dance Central - another game with no true competitor in experience.

Microsofthas much to gain from purchasing Harmonix. They just released Kinect. Harmonix is known for making peripheral driven games with new experiences given their track record. It's not so much the franchises they will be getting now... it's the future franchises that Harmonix could possibly come out with to make Kinect even more appealing.

Whether MS is actually considering this purchase is beyond my knowledge. I can only comment that I think it's a good fit. MS is restructuring their first party studios. Ensemble is closed, yes, but a great deal of the team went on to form new studios with MS's help. For example, Robot Entertainment is set to release a new FTP Age of Empires published by MGS. I do wish they left Ensemble alone but it's not all doom and gloom.

Unlike Ensemble and Bungie, Harmonix develops more unique experiences that resonate with a very broad audience and different audience. Ensemble and Bungie both delivered top notch games but they did so in a very highly populated and competitive market. Harmonix on the other hand has either invented new genres or redefined the standards with their games. For MS this makes Harmonix look very promising when you consider Kinect and what Harmonix have already managed to do with it. None of MS's other internal studios do this out of the box development. They all provide core experiences to well established genres (ie. racers, shooters, action-adventures, RPGs, RTSs).

Let's pray Activision doesn't pick them up. I'd be happy settling with ANY other outcome (barring no one losing their job)

I've been hankering to get into a good discussion with a fellow Canadian

I think you give Harmonix alittle too much credit. Ther were other great music instrument games before GuitarHero and Rockband. Harmonix looks at the music genre and sees potential, they seem to like making things feel more real. They didn't want another Maracas or drums game they thought man we could do exactly what these guys are doing with Guitars and it would be a huge hit. Then they saw how much people loved faking to play the Guitar that they decided to go and give gamers drums and they saw how much success Sony was having with SingStar and decided why not give consumers all three experiances together. That is hardly innovation, then RockBand 3 with the real instruments well Power Gig thought of that too, they simply launched the idea everyone was having. Geez I was at PAX and I played the new game "The Gig" which is essentially the same thing as RockBand and Power Gig. Not to mention the other ones on display at PAX seriously their was like five.

Then theirs dancing. Konami and others have created DDR and other Dance games that defined and created a new genre of gaming. Natal gets announced and Harmonix is again not the first to come up with a great idea. Alongside Harmonix Konami the company that really brought us the dance Genre also has Dance Masters. Both products are nearly identacle except for the obvious better sound track for Dance Central and an obviously larger budget.

But when has Harmonix actually created something unique that nobody else was doing? They had a niche market with RockBand, GuitarHero and now Dance Central. But they fail to hold onto that Niche, they don't offer consumers enough new content to drive future software. Many have said we expect Dance Central 2 in the next year or two if the first is successful. Then maybe they will expand into another music driven game I dunno, the music game developers  are grasping at straws with titles like DJHero for example. The music games industry is getting crowded and Harmonix does offer top of the line music based games but what else can they offer? Not to mention others offer those same experiances and more and more studios are playing follow the leader entering an over loaded market.

When Microsoft is cutting staff closing studios and letting others go independant it doesn't make sense for them to spend over 90-mill (Estimated price MTV wants) on a studio that doesn't actually offer any intellectual properties. A large reason Microsoft bought Rare and Bungie was for their IP's it wasn't the staff in the studio so much as the marketability of the games. Here's what Microsoft knows would happen if they bought Harmonix, several staff probubly many high ranking and critical ones would choose to leave the company and form new studios. They would have to clean house and hire tons of new staff with little to know experiance with Harmonix titles. Then they would be left with a studio that has two IP's and none of its critical staff left.

Now lets say on the off chance that all the staff is retained. What games can they do outside their genre (Music/Rythm games?) I mention Ensemble because they were very similiar they created great AAA quality RTS games now they closed and guess what the staff forming new studios all want to make RTS games. It was in Microsoft's best interest to groom Robot Entertainment is taking over for Ensemble with AOE.

It just doesn't make much sense to buy a studio who has never actually been outside the music games market. Without any IP's to offer (RockBand barely sells now) in a saturated music market. Where is the benefit for Microsoft?

Also yah I love debating and chatting with other Canadians!