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Harmonix Music Systems history
Harmonix Music Systems company history timeline
Harmonix was founded on May 10, 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, who met while attending MIT. Egozy was an electrical/computer engineer with an interest in music, while Rigopulos was a music composition major with an interest in programming; both met while working in the MIT Media Lab.
They then considered the entertainment industry in Japan, where in 1997, was taking off with the introduction of karaoke bars and music video games such as PaRappa the Rapper, Beatmania, and Dance Dance Revolution.
The game's development began in 1999, backed by a larger team at Harmonix, many of whom were musicians.
Released in 2001 on the PlayStation 2, FreQuency was critically acclaimed and won numerous awards, though it failed to become a mainstream success.
Harmonix developed a sequel, Amplitude, released in 2003.
Also in 2004, Sony Computer Entertainment released the Harmonix project EyeToy: AntiGrav.
In September 2006, MTV Networks, a division of media conglomerate Viacom, announced that it was acquiring Harmonix on behalf of MTV Networks for $175 million.
Specifically, the Guitar Hero controller was designed with five color-coded "fret" buttons and a "strum bar". Guitar Hero became largely successful, both critically and commercially, resulting in the well-received 2006 sequel Guitar Hero II, also developed by Harmonix.
Harmonix released Rock Band in November 2007.
The lawsuit also contends that Viacom has withheld $13 million in payouts from 2007, which Viacom had claimed at the time were to cover potential losses in patent lawsuits that were initiated against Harmonix by Activision and Gibson which have since been settled out of court.
In a 2009 survey of the best places to work in the Boston area, the Boston Globe ranked Harmonix as the 3rd best workplace overall, and the top mid-size business in its poll.
Such talks had been in place since September 2010, before the release of either Rock Band 3 or Dance Central.
On 11 November 2010, Viacom stated that it was in talks with potential buyers for Harmonix, having already marked the unit as a discontinued operation to write off a $299 million loss for its 2010 third-quarter earnings statement.
Following the purchase, Harmonix underwent a restructuring in February 2011, laying off about 12-15% of the 240-person staff.
In August 2012, the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed Viacom's claims, and ordered the company to pay Harmonix the remaining $299 million, though Viacom stated that it was seeking what further options it had.
As of March 2013 over 4,000 songs have been made available as downloadable content, with over 100 million songs downloaded.
Viacom appealed the decision, but the previous judgement was upheld by the Delaware Supreme Court in July 2013.
At the onset of the 2013 E3 conference, Harmonix announced that its next title would be the Kinect-enabled Fantasia: Music Evolved produced in association with Disney Interactive.
In May 2014, along with about 37 layoffs, Alex Rigopulos stepped aside from CEO to become the company's chief creative officer, while Steve Janiak would take over as CEO.
Chroma was planned for release in late 2014 on Microsoft Windows systems via Steam.
In March 2015, Harmonix announced their plan to return to Rock Band with the next major title in the series, Rock Band 4.
In September 2015, Rigopulos announced that he would go to the advisory board for the crowdfunding site Fig, through which Harmonix would obtain funding for its next, yet-announced game.
On 1 March 2016, Harmonix confirmed that the campaign was indeed to raise funds to port Rock Band 4 to the PC, but gamers would only have until 5 April to pledge US$1.5 million to make it happen.
Harmonix and NCSoft announced a publishing deal in August 2018 for an unspecified title developed by Harmonix and published by NCSoft across personal computers and console systems.
Harmonix was acquired by Epic Games in November 2021.
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Harmonix Music Systems competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electronic Arts | 1982 | $7.6B | 9,800 | 30 |
| Epic Games | 1991 | $500.0M | 1,001 | 106 |
| Rockstar Games | 1998 | $63.0M | 2,001 | 65 |
| Take-Two Interactive Software | 1993 | $5.3B | 6,495 | 69 |
| 343 Industries | 2007 | $31.7M | 450 | - |
| Sony Interactive Entertainment America | 1995 | $450.0M | 8,000 | - |
| Polygon | 1949 | $75.7M | 200 | 30 |
| RhythmOne | 2004 | - | 525 | - |
| 38 Studios | 2006 | $1.8M | 46 | - |
| Intralink | - | $680,000 | 1,000 | - |
Harmonix Music Systems history FAQs
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Harmonix Music Systems may also be known as or be related to HARMONIX MUSIC SYSTEMS INC, Harmonix Music Systems and Harmonix Music Systems, Inc.