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)

This is my first actual civil discussion on this site and I must say I'm greatly enjoying it. Looking forward to some great rebuttals.

Wow, sort of suprised this is your first civilized discussion on VGChartz. Glad to have this civil debate with you.

The fact that they did these things and got them right before anyone else is what makes them a quality and visionary dev. It's much like Apple. The concept of the tablet was toyed with before Apple launched the iPad. The iPad did it right and thus is a huge success and credit is given to Apple for the tablet Marketplace. Same with the touch screen cell-phone. The LG Prada came before the iPhone but again Apple did it the way consumers wanted and enjoyed it. Guitar Hero, Rock Band and now Dance Central are experiencing the same type of success. Everything they've touched has been quality and genre redefining. It's engraved into the mainstream consumers' minds that Harmonix did it right and better than anyone on multiple occassions and that brand association with quality is something that's incredibly hard to change. Apple has had failures and shortcomings (antenna problems, faulty graphics chips in macbooks, etc.) but consumers still consider their products heavily and ignore these issues. If MS buys Harmonix and they create a new experience, they've got a great marketing back for whatever it is just by saying "They changed the music game industry and redefined dance games... From the creators of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Dance Central...". Yes there are competitors that are doing what Harmonix has already done but that's what they will be seen as by the mainstream; alternatives to the original.

Your absolutely right Harmonix has definatly improved on existing idea's big time. They also have that unique partnership with MTV which gives them a music edge over competition. Its true they have created great alternatives. No argument there.

Again they are the first to execute the great idea well and that's really all that matters when it comes to mindshare. And market share follows mindshare. As far as being identical products, one clearly has taken the market by storm and will be getting a stronger following for the reasons mentioned above.

The question of mind share. If you go around asking gamers what their favorite Harmonix game is, I bet most will be like "Who". Now I'm not saying asking at PAX or a game convention. Just asking normal gamers, the mind share isn't going to be nearly as high as it is for us educated gamers. But if you asked what did you like better Guitar Hero or RockBand then you might get answers. I believe franchising is what drives market share and mind share. Brand awareness is what drives these things. Harmonix as a brand is little known outside the hardcore gaming world. Its the franchises that are known and drive the marketshare.

Harmonix created the music game Frequency which was launched in 2001 and a follow up called Amplitude  in 2003. That's extremely early in the creation of the music game genre. It's undeniable that they played a big role in carving out the genre and an even bigger role in making it a mainstream success with Guitar Hero. Benefits of this console gen is a short term way of looking at things. When next gen rolls around the entire playing field will again be a blank slate and MS and Harmonix can simply jump on and establish market dominance in the entire genre. Competitors will again only be seen as alternatives (looking back at the smartphone market) and Harmonix will find success due to their established name as long as their products remain quality. In the meantime they may help MS define their experiences on new markets. Other companies have done music/gesture games on handhelds. MS just releaased Windows Phone 7. There's a perfect opportunity for both companies to establish dominance and appeal in a growing market and again finding a way of doing it right for that format. There are a number of things Harmonix can help MS with. It could even boil down to creating something special for WMP and WMC which would only be available for Windows operating platforms.

Yes their are plenty of things Harmonix could do if bought by Microsoft. But not much Microsoft themselves couldn't do without Harmonix. Infact if you and I can think of great idea's why couldn't Microsoft themselves come up with these idea's? Again Harmonix while being a great studio doesn't offer much that Microsoft can't do without them and there for why purchase them?

They were restructuring MGS during the economy meltdown. The closures and sell-offs were known well before they actually happened. Ensemble knew a good 8 months or so before Halo Wars even launched that it would be there last project as Ensemble. MS even helped existing employees form a new studio and are funding their first project as I said earlier. You can't simply look at only the closures. Along the way they also created the internal Fire team and 343 Studios. So really the only loss in terms of first party is Bizarre Creations.  You also speak as if it's a guarantee Harmonix will fall apart if bought. Did Ensemble fall apart when initally bought by MS? Did Bungie? Bizarre? Rare is but one example where that happened. It has equal chance og going either way. That's also not an excuse for why MS shouldn't buy them as that's equally possible for any potential buyer.

Actually yes the purchase of those studio did cause the companies to fall apart. AOE for example was big in 1990's and AOE:Age Of Kings is credited for many advancements in the RTS genre. However after getting aquired by Microsoft several staff left the studio and the studio reworked how they made RTS games. The games they released as a Microsoft studio (Age Of Mythology and AOE 3, HaloWars) were arguably no where near as good as AOE and Age Of Kings. What about Bungie? again shortly after Microsoft took over staff began to leave the company. Alexander Seropian  one of the co-founders of Bungie got upset with Microsoft's handling of Bungie and left to form his own studio (WideLoadGames) Other founders and even many of the creators of Halo began leaving in droves between 2003-2009. Before finally Microsoft let Bungie go independant. In most cases when a studio gets bought up by a publisher it looses core staff.  Notice of the studios you mentioned two are either closed or close to being closed, one has gone independant.

It doesn't necessarily have to be outside of their genre. It just has to be different to what they've already done. They could be used to offer their talents to emerging or untouched markets (Windows Media and Windows Phone 7) or something like making a cross platform music studio that syncs up between your 360, Windows Phone and PC through your Live account. Something where you can generate music based on pre-recorded sounds, synthesized musical notes of a plethora of instruments and be able to publish it to popular online services, put it up for sale on a marketplace.... Pretty much doing for music what youtube has done for self created videos.

Good idea's but as I said earlier if you can come up with these idea's whats stopping Microsoft's internal teams with coming up with equally good ideas without Harmonix? For example Microsoft could form their own music based studio, hire some of the BudCat team that worked on Band Hero and Guitar Hero. Maybe hire some Harmonix staff and mix in some of Microsoft's existing staff. Whoola you have a great music genre studio that could probubly produce better games then Harmonix and at half the cost or even less. Why buy a studio with no valuable IP's, when you can create your own new studio like Microsoft did with 343Studios? No need to blow 90-mill.

It's not so much the products they have released that I'd be interested in if I was MS. It's the skills that they've picked up (identifying user interface experience problems and overcoming them excellently, creating an unnoticed marketplace, knowing their music and sounds, programming new ideas from scratch, etc.). These skills would allow them to come up with great products based on great ideas in more than just the gaming realm. Hell, I'm a 22 year old kid on the interwebs coming up with these ideas. Imagine would MS and Harmonix could think up. I would be absolutely honored if they read this and even considered one of my ideas good enough to pursue.

Exactly imagine what Microsoft could come up with, on their own without Harmonix. Then tell me that it is worth 90-mill for Microsoft to purchase Harmonix? The only way I see it benefiting Microsoft is if perhaps they secured an exclusive agreement with MTV for music content in all Microsoft's future games. If Microsoft could aquire the liscenses and support of MTV then it might be worth it. But for the stand alone studio I really doubt its worth all the trouble.

Plus Market share for Harmonix games has gone to hell. Also when BudCat took over Guitar Hero it continued to sell well without Harmonix. Again its brand recognition that drives mind share and market share. Now that RockBand and Guitar Hero brands are waining they are no longer valueble. Even Activision realizes that , I mean they closed BudCat which was arguably Harmonix only real competition in the music genre.

The fact that MTV wants to sell also shows that Harmonix just isn't worth what they were a few years ago. Their brand's and IP's and even their quality has diminished. Once taken over that would continue to deminish.