Former Harmonix shareholders may receive $209 million from Viacom

by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 3rd 2008 at 2:00PM }

Former Harmonix shareholders are looking to split a pot of $209 million courtesy of current owner MTV Games' parent company Viacom. A recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission states that because "financial results exceed specific contractual targets" that the former shareholders may receive a nice payday in the near future.

Rock Band may not be at Guitar Hero's level of sales yet, but its ninja operation of consistent DLC has paid off heavily (not only in sales, but in keeping gamer mindshare). Even at its initial high retail price, Rock Band has marched to a steady drumbeat and displayed staying power.

For those interested in crunching the numbers, Newsweek's Level Up looks at the devil ~~down in Georgia~~ in the details of this bonus.

Tags: harmonix, mtv, viacom

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Sam @ Mar 3rd 2008 2:08PM

Can I have it?

Veko @ Mar 3rd 2008 2:13PM

Who knew that releasing a great game and then expanding on that game through DLC was better then releasing a good game then releasing a mediocre sequel every 6 months?

Next you're going to tell me that Ubisoft should stop releasing their 'Imagine' and 'Petz: z' games.

If you can get rich by selling shit...I don't see why not.

Marty @ Mar 3rd 2008 2:23PM

Who would have thought that DDR with a plastic guitar would be popular in the first place?

Zootittles @ Mar 3rd 2008 3:09PM

Certainly not Konami!

Lars @ Mar 3rd 2008 6:57PM

I bought it for the drums, since they use actual drumming skill. Playing with the toy guitar in GH was never a hit with me.

ViagraFiend @ Mar 3rd 2008 2:26PM

I'm rich!

hvnlysoldr @ Mar 3rd 2008 2:27PM

Already reached past 20% of Guitar Hero franchise with its five or more games. And Rock Band is set to succeed GH so, it looks quite possible in the next year or two.

Hey Apples @ Mar 3rd 2008 2:28PM

I am *really* glad to see that the financial expectations have been exceeded for this company.

Far too many brilliant and creative game projects have been shitcanned because they weren't financially successful.

gwangi @ Mar 3rd 2008 2:47PM

That's only a millions dollars (the image). Only reason I know this is because I took the exact same picture when I was in Vegas last year.

aristokrat @ Mar 3rd 2008 2:49PM

Harmonix only cost MTV $175 million, so it seems that contract traded a low selling point for future performance-based incentives, which is good news for Harmonix shareholders.

Croal's analysis overlooks the fact that Harmonix can still make other games too (such as Phase, which they have probably made a little money on). Though MTV may not break even with Rock Band itself, they have the best rhythm gaming division in the industry for less than it would have cost them to try to assemble one of their own.

Burritoclock @ Mar 3rd 2008 2:53PM

Just imagine sales if they had managed to get the game out WITH stand alone instruments, not to mention the negative press about the faulty hardware and the cost of said hardware.

I really love this game, but it is sad that even the recent high quality mic that was released (not actually a harmonix product) broke on me (and others in the same damn way)