Posts Tagged ‘harmonix’

So at the beginning of this month, we reported via Destructoid that someone had discovered Harmonix licensing the rights to some hip-hop and dance songs; tracks that typically don’t fit the Rock Band mold.  I would like to say that you can assume these won’t be in the inevitable Rock Band 3, but with the Harmonix camp keeping mum on any future projects sans Green Day: Rock Band, there’s no telling what project may be next, and what type of music it could incorporate.  Many, myself included, speculated they could be revamping their Frequency and/or Amplitude franchises.

To add further confusion to figuring out what Harmonix may be working on, we find out from @kaleofuturisto on Twitter this little tidbit:

Harmonix, the creators of The ROCKBAND Video Game is planning on using one of my tracks for their demo projects. AWESOME!!

According to his Twitter and Myspace bio, he’s an artist who works on everything from Hip-Hop, to Pop, to Rock, to R&B.  I listened to a few of his tracks, and some have the potential to fit the “Rock Band” formula based on current instrument charting, but since he mentions a “demo project,” I’m thinking it’s not Rock Band 3.

I’m still standing by my Frequency/Amplitude hypothesis.  If you have any interesting theories, drop ‘em off in the comments… I’d love to hear ‘em!

We’re nearly one month out from PAX East now, and the schedule for the event has made it’s way onto the official website (PDF link here). Feel free to take a look at all the panels, but I’ve culled the list down to the more Rock Band / Harmonix specific events if that is your bag (which if you are reading this AND going to PAX East, I’m assuming it is).

Thursday, March 25

- Rock Band night at Improv Boston (potentially cancelled unless new venue is discovered…)

Friday, March 26

- 2:00 PM – Manticore Theatre – “Journalists vs. Developers: The Ultimate Grudge Match” featuring @johntdrake of Harmonix

- 8:30 PM – Main Theatre – Friday Night Concert featuring Rock Band DLC and RBN artist MC Frontalot

Saturday, March 27

- 2:30 PM – Manticore Theatre – “PAX East Musical Guests Panel!” featuring Rock Band DLC and RBN artists MC Frontalot, Paul and Storm, and Jon Coulton

- 8:00 PM – The Middle East – Harmonix Music presents The Main Drag, Anarchy Club, The Konks, That Handsome Devil, and Death of the Cool (18 and over show, $10 tickets)

- 8:00 PM – Lir Irish Pub – Gamers Gone Wild Rock Band Tournament

- 8:30 PM – Main Theatre – Saturday Night Concert featuring Rock Band DLC and RBN artists Paul and Storm and Jon Coulton

- 11:00 PM – Manticore Theatre – “Rockband Freeplay”

Sunday, March 28

- 10:00 AM – Manticore Theatre – An Awkward Hour with Rock Band Designers” featuring @deliciousbees, @hmxcasey, Sylvain Dubrofsky, and Brian Chan

- 10:00 AM – Naga Theatre – “Community Managers: More than Forum Monkeys” featuring @hmxhenry

- 1:30 PM – Wyvern Theatre – “Forcing Your Way In & Coming Out On Top” featuring @hmxhellion

- 4:00 PM – Manticore Theatre – “Sequelitis Snake Oil: Quack Medicine for the Video Game Industry” featuring @deliciousbees

A long time ago, Konami brought over some games from Japan to the U.S. that involved video games with interactive dancing and singing using attached peripherals to facilitate the experience.  Dance Dance Revolution was a big for a short time, as well as their Karaoke Revolution games.  When they introduced these games, they filed patents protecting their intellectual property, which is common for entrepreneurs blazing new ground with new products and new ideas.  While Konami never established a specific patent over guitar shaped peripherals, they did file three patents relating to music/rhythm based peripherals.  The games mentioned above ran their course, and slowly started to fade from limelight.

Along came Harmonix with Guitar Hero, and the next “hot” video game segment was born.  Konami thought that since they had success with the Dance Dance Revolution and Karaoke Revolution games, they should leverage their experience (and naming convention) into a similar game and call it “Rock Revolution.”  As well all know, it failed miserably.  And as a result, Konami’s  inevitable sour grapes reaction was “If you can’t beat ‘em, sue ‘em,” and so in July of 2008, they filed a lawsuit against Viacom for infringing upon three of their patents.

Harmonix didn’t take this lying down, and decided to fight fire with fire by suing Konami in 2009 for infringement against two of their own patents, specifically copyrighting “realistic interaction by a player with a music-based video game using a game controller simulating a guitar,” and another regarding hammer-on and pull-off techniques.

Now, there are many more specifics that I won’t get into; part because they get very technical in terms of copyright law, but mostly because I just don’t understand them.  But last week, it appears that a motion was filed by both parties to stay the proceedings (meaning to halt the trial), which means a settlement is probably in the works for Harmonix.  Konami’s initial case is still moving forward as planned, but it wouldn’t surprise if all lawsuits were eventually halted.

So what does this mean for us?  Well… nothing for now.  But if anything changes, you’ll know where to find additional details!

[via Patent Arcade]

It’s not the same as being recognized in Time magazine’s top 100 most influential people of 2008, but this is a pretty big accomplishment nonetheless. USA Network, the home of “Monk,” “Psych,” and “Burn Notice” have recognized Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy as a 2010 Character Approved honoree.  They are featured among other big names in pop culture, including Kathryn Bigelow (director of “The Hurt Locker”) and ironically enough, Green Day!

From the article…

Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy are co-founders of Harmonix Music Systems, the game development company responsible for the wildly popular Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games. Rigopulos and Egozy first met as graduate students in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s renowned Media Lab. Brought together by a shared love of computers and music, the two accomplished musicians (Rigopulos rocks out on the drums, while Egozy is a professional classical clarinetist) went on to found Harmonix in 1995, with the mission of bringing the joy of music-making to the masses-even those with no musical training. After designing several well-reviewed music-based games, the duo broke through to the big time with the 2005 release of Guitar Hero, followed in 2007 by the equally popular Rock Band. Rigopulos and Egozy’s potent combination of musical training and advanced technical skill-combined with a healthy dose of innovation-has fueled explosive growth in the category of music games and earned the two a place on Time Magazine’s 2008 list of the 100 most influential people in the world. (Not to mention brought joy to air guitarists, shower singers and living room rock stars the world over.)

Congratulations!

UPDATE: Check out the video of them below!

[via USA Network]

Wait for it...

Found over at Destructoid, it looks like Harmonix has licensed the rights to four tracks (see below) that, despite some creative charting in Rock Band, I just can’t believe could be used in the current franchise.  So what could they be licensing them for?  Too early to say, but early consensus tends to think they are either going after a “DJ Hero” type game, rebooting an older franchise (Frequency, Amplitude), or starting something entirely new altogether.  Harmonix is definitely innovative, so personally I doubt they are going down the “DJ Hero” game route.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Either way, check out the solid selection of songs after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE: Harmonix reached out to the major gaming sites after this story hit the blogosphere, and confirmed that they are indeed working with Demiurge on Green Day: Rock Band, as well as MK12, and “others.”  They also emphasized what I pointed out below, that Demiurge has worked with Harmonix on previous titles, mainly the Track Packs.  In fact, LEGO Rock Band was developed with Traveller’s Tales, and Rock Band: Unplugged was developed with Backbone Entertainment.  And just to clarify, it is my understanding is that Harmonix still does all the charting for the games in-house, so don’t think that the quality of the tracks from any collaboration between studios diminishes the product or the franchise.

Hmm… this is something you don’t see everyday. I haven’t been able to corroborate this yet, but apparently Adam Rosenfield, an employee at Demiurge Studios, wrote on his blog that his company will be working on Green Day: Rock Band. Demiurge was also responsible for the Country Track Pack and the Metal Track Pack discs.  Not sure what Harmonix may be outsourcing to Demiurge (see what they worked on for the Metal Track Pack here).  It is also possible that Demiurge is migrating the game from one console to the other (I know some people that work at Budcat Creations who convert the Guitar Hero games to the Wii and PS2 consoles).

So what does this mean?  Obviously Harmonix and EA are not completely cut out of the loop, but if all of the above turns out to be true, does this impact your decision to pick up the game?  (And I’m sure this is where a lot of people chime in “I wasn’t going to buy it anyway!”)  And I would also guess that by outsourcing a portion of the game to a third party, hopefully the price may come down a little bit, as well as give the folks at Harmonix more time to devote to other, newer projects…