Would be a pretty wise choice for MS seeing as dancing games and the like go great with KINECT.

How about, for appropriate tracks of course,  "Buy the track, play it on Rock Band AND Dance Central" for like 40 points more?   

They are are a "big deal"? O.o 

I always figured they were kind of meh.

Harmonix is the best in the music game industry.

I always thought that the peripherals were cross platform compatible.

Nope, peripherals are only cross game compatible aka Guitar Hero guitars work with Rock Band on the same system.

Honestly I think Microsoft stands to benefit only a bit from buying Harmonix. Sure they are great at what they do "Music Games" but what else do they bring to the table? Nothing. They only own a few IP's and RockBand their biggest IP is on its way out. Dance Central while valueble probubly won't last longer then a generation or two.

What does Microsoft gain, a few "AA" franchises. Now remember when MS bought Rare for over 200-mill. They gained like a dozen IP's and a few of them were AAA titles. But after purchasing them their IP's went downhill and today they can't make the same AAA games they were known for. Bungie Microsoft purchased them and guess what they lost the founders and lots of the developers left. Finally Bungie went independant again.

Unless Microsoft has some games in mind that they think only Harmonix could do they aren't going to buy. I mean Microsoft is downsizing their first party studios. Ensemble is a great example of a highly profitable studio with several IP's and Microsoft closed them.

What makes Harmonix better then Ensemble or Bungie? What does Harmonix offer that none of Microsoft internal studios couldn't do? What potential do Harmonix IP's have for Microsoft?

My bet is Activision will pick them up to get rid of competition in a rapidly shrinking music marketplace. Or EA will buy them to offset Activisions lead in the industry. I don't think any of the big three will be to interested in investing 90 million, which is what they want.

hurrah, another company that can get hosed by MS. MS great in concept often destroyers of talent and companies.

Hmm, I'd rather Microsoft take up the Zenimax approach and buy up and coming talented development teams. Harmonix is an expensive studio, who are experts at making games for a dying genre and they haven't got much experience outside of said genre. If Dance Central becomes a huge hit, then maybe it'd be worth it, but if dancing games lose their selling power in a few years, then Microsoft are stuck with a meh team to make Halo map packs.

Only a bit? They are one of the better buys out there so long as the price is right. It is an excellent studio which is able to make mainstream titles like none of their other 1st party studios can. Why buy a studio where everything they do is done as good/better with other 3rd party developers? These guys have a unique talent and it shows with their consistantly high rated Rockband and Dance Central. Once we get into the next generation we'll see significantly more demand for the music genre because everyone will have to start buying new software afresh even if the old peripherals still work.