The latest round of video game studio acquisition comes from Epic Games which is acquiring Harmonix, the developers of titles like Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Dance Central. The developers made the announcement today via a blog post, mentioning that they will "work with Epic to create musical journeys and gameplay for Fortnite". However, specifics of such collaboration haven't been shared at this time.

" Now, we’ll be working with Epic to once again challenge expectations as we bring our unique brand of musical gaming experiences to the Metaverse, and we couldn’t be more excited," reads the post.

Harmonix also stated that their joining of the Epic Games family will not affect their current Rock Band DLC plans nor the way they support any their older games. The developers also created a brief FAQ in the post to answer pertinent questions.

SOURCE

 

[MarkDarkness]

Wow, you paint such a cheery picture. Why is everyone so negative about this acquisition? Am I missing something?

Epic is not exactly a model company, and they are basically a Western proxy for China's Tencent, who owns 49% of it and calls many shots. Now Tencent itself is a dubious company ran with the backing of certain "higher up" actors if you know what I mean. (Officially. This is not even conjecture)

Tldr: if you do not have political or privacy concerns, Epic can be your bros. Otherwise, a cautious approach to them is best.

 

[7bbbbbbb]

This can't be good news

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

why is everyone saying "oh no" harmonix hasnt made a good game in like half a decade wtf are we losing

also for those of you wanting more guitar hero, check out clone hero, its like guitar hero, but with wayyy more options(you can finally speed up songs[to you non-rhythm game players this may not seem like much but trust me it adds so much]) and make sure to look at acai's guide to buying clone hero guitars and for custom songs check out https://chorus.fightthe.pw/ and here's some song recommendations https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13B823ukxdVMocowo1s5XnT3tzciOfruhUVePENKc01o/edit#gid=0

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Everyone is crapping all over this, but this could save Harmonix and the Rock Band IP.

They clearly have not been doing too great because I seem to remember crowdfunding being a thing for a RB4 PC version, which didn't nearly meet its goal. Would love to see Rock Band on PC eventually, though. When a (AAA) developer with a publisher has to rely on crowdfunding to port a game to PC, that's not a great look. Epic could for sure help with things like this.

I don't like Epic either, but this is one of the most sensible acquisitions I can imagine for them.

 

[Kioku]

Oh, cool. They bought out a legendary company to further pad a game that had long lost its charm for me. K... Epic being Epic. Obligatory Fuck You Sweeney

 

[Gamemaster1379]

why is everyone saying "oh no" harmonix hasnt made a good game in like half a decade wtf are we losing

also for those of you wanting more guitar hero, check out clone hero, its like guitar hero, but with wayyy more options(you can finally speed up songs[to you non-rhythm game players this may not seem like much but trust me it adds so much]) and make sure to look at acai's guide to buying clone hero guitars and for custom songs check out https://chorus.fightthe.pw/ and here's some song recommendations https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13B823ukxdVMocowo1s5XnT3tzciOfruhUVePENKc01o/edit#gid=0

Honestly Clone Hero looks pretty ugly as a UI overall. I'm much more of a fan of Phase Shift.

 

[Darth Meteos]

Well, tbh - the greatest time was PS3/X360 - with all those Guitar Hero and Rock Band titles... the little effort they made on PS4/XBO was just sad, they basically killed themselves with no backwards compatibility / new guitar with different layout and that was it. I loved those games - 15 years ago - and can still enjoy them by using Clone Hero.

Rock Band 4 was fully backwards compatible.

 

[Darth Meteos]

Hmm, that's interesting. I wonder how that will affect the Rock Band series, especially in regards to hacks. Everyone is afraid that this will make Rock Band into Fortnite, but I disagree.

Actually, this might be the break we're looking for. Considering that Epic Games is one of the key members of the Coalition for App Fairness, and is one of the many companies fighting against big tech companies like Google and Apple, we might see Rock Band being ported more freely to platforms where it barely made ground, such as Android, iOS, Windows., and perhaps even Nintendo Switch! Sure, the CEO has wild ideas (like a one-world-type app store to replace the need for multiple app stores... no joke), but for the Rock Band series... well, who knows? Time will tell if Harmonix's new owners can help with better development.

Ah, if only that RB4 PC Kickstarter had gone through.

 

[Bladexdsl]

incoming guitar hero minigame added to fortnite where you can win more worthless shit to be added to that already bloated overrated piece of shit teaching kids to steal from their parents to buy worthless garbage skins game

 

[eyeliner]

Ah, if only that RB4 PC Kickstarter had gone through.

A proof that maybe Harmonix would be no more and this was a way to keep jobs?

I don't care about rhythm games as I suck at QTE type events, but I actually thout that Harmonix was dead.

If Epic ends up being their savior, good for all, I say.

 

[MikaDubbz]

Man people really hate Epic. And I don't really get it. Like I'm no Fortnite fan, but I respect the game and get why people do like it. Epic found great success there and now they're acting quickly to acquire other studios and become a titan in the gaming industry. Frankly, I appreciate the hustle and the vision, and I don't hold nearly the contempt for them than I do for the likes of EA, Activision, or Take Two; and even though I hate these companies, I still like and purchase many of the games they do release regardless. So I guess I don't get why Epic seems to be such a big target these days.

 

[Deleted member 534570]

I wonder where this is going...

A Fortnite-themed Guitar Hero game?

 

[Plasmaster09]

Man people really hate Epic. And I don't really get it. Like I'm no Fortnite fan, but I respect the game and get why people do like it. Epic found great success there and now they're acting quickly to acquire other studios and become a titan in the gaming industry. Frankly, I appreciate the hustle and the vision, and I don't hold nearly the contempt for them than I do for the likes of EA, Activision, or Take Two; and even though I hate these companies, I still like and purchase many of the games they do release regardless. So I guess I don't get why Epic seems to be such a big target these days.

Various flavors of corporate scumminess, a decent bit likely due to Tencent's barely-not-majority share in the company.

 

[MikaDubbz]

Various flavors of corporate scumminess, a decent bit likely due to Tencent's barely-not-majority share in the company.

Sure, but how is that any different from any of the third party big dogs in the gaming industry? Seems like Epic gets singled out these days when honestly they seem tamer in general than what the other guys are doing.

 

[HarveyHouston]

Epic is not exactly a model company, and they are basically a Western proxy for China's Tencent, who owns 49% of it and calls many shots. Now Tencent itself is a dubious company ran with the backing of certain "higher up" actors if you know what I mean. (Officially. This is not even conjecture)

Tldr: if you do not have political or privacy concerns, Epic can be your bros. Otherwise, a cautious approach to them is best.

Ah, yes. That makes sense. However, it's ironic how people in the U.S. don't like Tencent because it's a Chinese company, yet they complain over Chinese sanctions that are part of a motive to bring businesses to the U.S. and cut us off from these Chinese companies. That doesn't make sense.

Epic Games has a lot of good properties, but if they want to stay secure, they should either convince Tencent to have headquarters in the U.S. that would not be impacted by further potential Chinese sanctions, or cut themselves off from Tencent and try to make it on their own or with another American business.

My two cents; that probably won't happen. What is more likely to happen is that if sanctions cut off Tencent, then Epic Games will be scrambling to try to stay afloat. If they are smart enough, they'll survive without losing any property, but if not, then Epic Games will be forced to sell their divisions, which might include the recently obtained Harmonix.

EDIT: Hmm, reading this section of Wikipedia, it may be in Epic Games' best interest to cut off Tencent altogether, considering that Tencent seems to be willing servants of the Chinese government. I say "servants" rather than "slaves" because all people who work in China must work under governmental rules (except maybe Hong Kong), but there's a key difference between those who dislike and try to resist Chinese government, and those who like and honor the Chinese government's dictatorship disciplines.

 

[codezer0]

Wow, you paint such a cheery picture. Why is everyone so negative about this acquisition? Am I missing something?

History has shown that every big budget publisher that buys a smaller studio always makes things worse.

Should I remind you of all the studios EA has killed?
All the studios now contracted to work on Call of Duty or some other crap game because Activision and Blizzard couldn't be bothered to make it in-house?
I don't know how many Ubisoft has also destroyed, but it's safe to say that they too are as guilty.

 

[eyeliner]

Are they dead beats?

 

[urbanman2004]

Epic might go bankrupt acquiring all these has-been studios, lol j/k... Maybe this is the beginning of their master plan for world domination, ... I've always been skeptical of Tim Sweeney's jerk smirk, lol.

 

[MarkDarkness]

Ah, yes. That makes sense. However, it's ironic how people in the U.S. don't like Tencent because it's a Chinese company, yet they complain over Chinese sanctions that are part of a motive to bring businesses to the U.S. and cut us off from these Chinese companies. That doesn't make sense.

Epic Games has a lot of good properties, but if they want to stay secure, they should either convince Tencent to have headquarters in the U.S. that would not be impacted by further potential Chinese sanctions, or cut themselves off from Tencent and try to make it on their own or with another American business.

My two cents; that probably won't happen. What is more likely to happen is that if sanctions cut off Tencent, then Epic Games will be scrambling to try to stay afloat. If they are smart enough, they'll survive without losing any property, but if not, then Epic Games will be forced to sell their divisions, which might include the recently obtained Harmonix.

EDIT: Hmm, reading this section of Wikipedia, it may be in Epic Games' best interest to cut off Tencent altogether, considering that Tencent seems to be willing servants of the Chinese government. I say "servants" rather than "slaves" because all people who work in China must work under governmental rules (except maybe Hong Kong), but there's a key difference between those who dislike and try to resist Chinese government, and those who like and honor the Chinese government's dictatorship disciplines.

Yeah, you caught the drift of what I was implying. I personally prefer not to have the Epic client installed on my machine. It might not have anything untoward going on right now or for the next 10 years, but the window for it do do something funny at some point is _definitely_ there. And they will call that something funny "a mistake" or a "rogue actor" or a "disgruntled employee" and get away with it.

 

[leon315]

Rip, never got into those games on ps2, etc because not what i like to play but yeah, that's a rip.

or alternatively would u like them being acquired by EA?

BTW what was their last great game ever developed? honestly after Guitar Here franchise, they seems vanished from public.