Harmonix quits the band, starts up new project
by Jared Rea 
{ Jan 22nd 2007 at 2:27PM }
As a follow-up to our speculative post regarding the future of Guitar Hero development, Harmonix has cleared up the whole mess in an interview with Gamasutra. We'll hit you with the good news first: Harmonix is in fact working on a brand-new music title. The (possibly) bad news being that they will not be involved with Guitar Hero III, leaving that title in the hands of, presumably, Neversoft.Regarding the new project, Harmonix producer Daniel Sussman took time away from reading the blogs of his favorite Laguna Beach cast members to say it's "a bigger and more ambitious endeavor than we felt we could pursue within the bounds of the Guitar Hero franchise." Though he could have just been talking about the new Fall Out Boy album (they're still hot with the kids, right?), we're excited all the same for whatever the future may hold for the MTV-owned developer.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mark Felps @ Jan 22nd 2007 2:49PM
Aaaaaaamplituuuuuuuuuude!
crono141 @ Jan 22nd 2007 2:57PM
Isn't harmonix owned by MTV now?
MTV has no business developing GH. Period.
Leshrac @ Jan 22nd 2007 3:05PM
I'll second that... Amplitude sequel please.
Big John @ Jan 22nd 2007 8:37PM
crono141 @ 2: Man, the world is going to be a cruel place for you if you've got issues with which company owns which other company and ruling them out of this and that.
spambot @ Jan 22nd 2007 3:17PM
Well if MTV is involved it will probably be "Pop-Punk/Mainstream Hip-Hop Hero".
FSK405K @ Jan 22nd 2007 4:34PM
Now they can finally put all their energies toward Accordion Hero. You've all seen the leaked prototype sketches, right?
Rob Accomando @ Jan 22nd 2007 3:13PM
Drum Hero!!
Fernando Rocker @ Jan 22nd 2007 3:22PM
Wiitar Hero!!
Fernando Rocker @ Jan 22nd 2007 3:38PM
Guitar Hero: Classic Heavy Metal from 70's and 80's Edition will be cool.
New music sucks!
My list for a Guitar Hero:
Led Zeppeli
Dio
Metallica
Iron Maiden
Deep Purple
Judas Priest
Helloween
Van Halen
Steve Vai
Michael Angelo Batio
Satriani
Ozzy
Black Sabbath
Whitesnake
AC/DC
Pink Floyd
Poison
Skid Row
Ratt
Quiet Riott
Cinderela
Firehouse
Def Lepard
and almost every artist from Guitar Hero 1 (Guitar Hero 2 sucks, expect for Kiss, Guns, Lynyrd Skynyrd)
E.J. @ Jan 22nd 2007 4:09PM
@2, crono141
Just FYI, MTV Games is the reason this game has so much exposure and became so popular.
http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/puzzle/guitarhero/news.html?sid=6140358
Thanks for playing.
Daniel @ Jan 22nd 2007 5:21PM
Let's set this straight. Harmonix DID NOT "quit the band". The band got bought out, and then Harmonix got replaced. It seems that your headline is trying to mislead people (thought it was a bit funny).
nick @ Jan 22nd 2007 8:14PM
Orchestra Hero? Gather 200 or so of your friends to complete a song from Vivaldi in unison?
crono141 @ Jan 22nd 2007 4:17PM
Exposure? I've never seen a commercial for it. I had no interest in the game until I picked it up and played it myself.
Anything MTV is involved in will turn out trash. Thats just the way it is.
I was under the impression it became popular because it was, you know, good and fun.
Harbl @ Jan 22nd 2007 4:25PM
When Guitar Hero was released almost every other commercial on MTV was for Guitar Hero so you can almost certainly thank MTV for Guitar Hero being so popular with casual gamers.
tcc3 @ Jan 22nd 2007 4:35PM
Well at least we got it for 360 before it all went to hell.
The only way this is good news for GH fans is if they up the ante. Imagine: Rock Gods - guitar hero, a karaoke revolution style game, drums, perhaps even a keybord, all rolled into one. You and your friends are the whole band.
But I admit that would be ambitious.
Tim @ Jan 22nd 2007 4:33PM
I read that MTV owns the patent on any video game in America involving a drum set controller (a la DrumMania).
I hope this means they'll rip off GuitarFreaks/DrumMania now.
Which means Multiplayer will be able to support 2 guitars and a drummer. And then I hope they don't get any worse in song selections.
tcc3 @ Jan 22nd 2007 4:35PM
People still watch MTV?
Dookin @ Jan 22nd 2007 4:42PM
MTV had more of an influence in the first guitar hero. I don't know why you people are whining about it now
TheGameMaster @ Jan 22nd 2007 10:13PM
well the next GH will suck! THAT'S FOR SURE. And amplitude was NEVER fun. Game sucked.
Infil @ Jan 22nd 2007 6:40PM
A Guitar Hero not developed by Harmonix will suck. There's no way around it. Music games are hard to make. Neversoft (or whoever got the job) is not a music game company. They will not know what they're doing, even given all the code, IP, and songs. It will suck.
That being said, I'm very sorry to see Harmonix have the franchise ripped from them like this. I hope their new project is as awesome as Amplitude was (is?), and I hope it's on Wii!
Can you imagine what awesome ideas Harmonix could dream up with an input device like the Wiimote?
Kyouryuu @ Jan 22nd 2007 8:15PM
"A Guitar Hero not developed by Harmonix will suck. There's no way around it. Music games are hard to make. Neversoft (or whoever got the job) is not a music game company. They will not know what they're doing, even given all the code, IP, and songs. It will suck."
Gee, I wish I had your ability to see into the future!
I don't see why Harmonix should hold some exclusive right on musical video games. The basis for Guitar Hero is already there. All you need to do is put new songs in it and transcribe them to notes. All that takes is time and basic understanding of how to play a guitar. It's not rocket science and I'd be willing to bet it is vastly easier than producing a Tony Hawk game.
Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see where Harmonix goes from here.
Infil @ Jan 22nd 2007 8:34PM
"I don't see why Harmonix should hold some exclusive right on musical video games. The basis for Guitar Hero is already there. All you need to do is put new songs in it and transcribe them to notes. All that takes is time and basic understanding of how to play a guitar. It's not rocket science and I'd be willing to bet it is vastly easier than producing a Tony Hawk game."
Harmonix doesn't own such a right. I think Konami's Bemani series is superior (in most ways) to anything Harmonix has done. But if you haven't played a ton of music games in the past, you don't understand all the fine tuning (and good intuition) required to make a music game fun. Guitar Hero is fun almost for inexplicable reasons. It just... works. The songs are just fun to play. That's actually a very difficult thing to do, and is pretty close to "rocket science" as far as games go, actually.
I'm saying the game will suck based on past experience. Several music games have passed on to other developers (or other teams within the same developer), and fans of the franchise can *immediately* tell. It's actually quite amazing. The game just... doesn't feel as fun, or as well made. Considering Neversoft doesn't have any music game experience, they are taking on arguably the hardest genre in gaming AND the most successful franchise of the past year or two. Their results aren't going to be pretty.
Though, I would love for Neversoft to prove me wrong.
Jeff @ Jan 23rd 2007 4:42AM
Let's see...frankly, as long as Neversoft doesn't change the controller (which they won't, since RedOctane is still on their side) and doesn't mess up the system under the game (which is totally possible), the game will be fine, since those are the only two things that could possibly screw this up. Why? Because the only other component to Guitar Hero is the covers of the songs, and Harmonix didn't do those to begin with, they outsourced to Wavegroup. Best case scenario, Neversoft outsources to Wavegroup. Worst case, they try to do it themselves and do miserably. Medium case, they outsource to some other music studio, which is the most likely thing that will happen. Let's say Neversoft isn't insane and outsources to some company that does a good job with the covers, and let's say RedOctane doesn't let them change the controller. This means all Neversoft has to do is write the notes that go along with the song, write the system that goes under the notes and stuff, and do some modelling. The modelling doesn't matter, since most people will be happy with however it looks as long as it's still fun to play. The system and the notes are what's important, and Neversoft already has a perfect model (Guitar Hero 2). The notes will probably be easy to write, so to me, the big if for this game is just the programming. Doesn't matter, though, they already have my money, since I'm buying it anyway.
Matt @ Jan 23rd 2007 3:28PM
It will be a dj mixing "MMORPG." Millions of songs created by thousands of users all sharing and tweaking each other's creations/mashups. Remember these words.
We're all gonna need bigger harddrives.