How Dance Central saved Harmonix

by Jessica Conditt on Nov 5th 2011 12:30PM

In 2010, the music-game bubble had burst and Harmonix was on the verge of shutting down; its parent company Viacom was trying desperately to sell, but no company was buying. And then Harmonix dropped Dance Central. Today, Dance Central is the second-best-selling game on Kinect, having sold more than 2.5 million copies -- and from that, Harmonix expects to report $100 million in revenue for 2011, its most profitable year ever.

Downloads are a large part of Harmonix's turnaround. It's sold about 100 million songs as paid DLC since 2006 for all of its titles, including Rock Band. At only 200 employees, $100 million isn't too shabby, and with two new titles in the works, Harmonix expects to double its profit in the coming years. Kinda makes you want to get up and dance -- no, wait. That's the fire ants.

Via: Gamespot
Source: Bloomberg

Tags: dance-central, Harmonix, kinect, microsoft, rock-band, xbox

Reader Comments (40)

I would probably cry if Harmonix went under.

@The Cole Train I'm crying even thinking about it, i love every Friday looking at what DLC we are going to get Tuesday, mind you i'm not always happy with the songs(looking at you country pack) but it's good to see a dev team really care about it's fans (and money :).

@The Cole Train I'd probably do too. A game making company that has actual PASSION for music (in fact, several members are in actual rock bands, and have put their music in GH and RB)

Not only did Dance Central help Harmonix, but Kinect wouldn't be as successful without it either. Its really a fun game. I'm glad Harmonix is alive and well and I'm sure MS is as well.

Wih they had the ability to make a new frequency/amplitude

With the dozens of stories of great developers going under in the last couple years, it's nice to see one make a comeback instead. It's a very stressful business. One day you can be on top of the world, the next bankrupt, the next on top again.

Regardless of what EA said about Harmonix, they would have been a much better buy than say... Rare was for MS

So how long before the dance genre is milked into oblivion?

@Hoops
Think back to dance mats. They lasted 2 years? I'd give them a similar lifespan.

@Undulation

Dance mats? Those things lasted for a whole lot longer than two years. I remember getting dance mats on my original Playstation, all the way back in 1998 . . .then on Dreamcast in 2000 . . . then on Xbox in 2003. Those things lasted from around 1998, all the way until 2009, and were selling well all the way up to 2005. That's a lot of longevity, far longer than the "two years" you speak of.

And seeing as Kinect is ultimately coming to everything from Xbox consoles, to desktop PCs, to laptops, smart TVs, settop boxes, and somehow to even tablets and smartphones over the next few years, to the point where there will be a Kinect of some formfactor connected to every device running a Microsoft OS, or embedded Microsoft OS, the ubiquity alone promises the potential of some serious longevity for the Dance Central series, so long as Harmonix keeps bringing the innovations and freshness to the series.

@Hoops How long is every genre been milked?

Harmonix, are they the good guys who made Rock Band or the bad guys who made Band Hero, Guitar Hero et al?

@Undulation They created the first two guitar hero games, sold the licence to Activison, then created rock band,

@bloodlinejake

bloodlinejake is correct, but the shorter answer is that they're the good guys.

@Undulation

The correct answer would be Frequency.

@Undulation They made every Rock Band and Guitar Hero 1, 2, and Encore.

@bloodlinejake

Slightly incorrect. Harmonic never had the rights to Guitar Hero. Essentially, Red Octane contracted Harmonix to make a game that used the guitar peripheral they were developing.

All Guitar Hero rights belonged to Red Octane. Activision essentially bought them just for those rights, but Harmonix was under contract to do three games.

I just hope when they bring back rock band you can use real instruments instead of plastic toys.

@bargaingamer you do know you can use a real guitar, real E-Drums and a real Keyboard in rock band 3 right, yo can even use a real usb mic ;)

Dance Central is so solid that I'm not even angry that I don't own any other Kinect titles (nor plan to). As long as Harmonix continues to support the series, I'm entirely happy with my purchase.

Now if only they'd patch Bruno Mars out of the game, I'd buy stock.

@RickGhastly

Okay, but only if they can patch in Nickelback. That seems like a fair trade right?

@RickGhastly

You should really give Child of Eden a chance. And then after that, Rise of Nightmares, The Gunstringer, PowerUP Heroes

There are not a lot of core gaming experiences available for Kinect, but the ones that are there, are pretty damned good. Plus there are some very promising core games on the horizon like, Fable: The Journey, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, and Project Draco, which look very promising.

But seriously, if you have not played Child of Eden for Kinect, then you do yourself the disservice.

@Tachyonic Cargo
I thoroughly enjoyed the Gunstringer demo but I'm waiting until it's a little closer to the $20 range. Every bit of spare cash has gone to weather the next month of releases. Great game, though.

I completely forgot about Child of Eden, however. I'll definitely give it a chance some time because it does indeed look pretty awesome (and I loved Rez). It really seems like they botched its release and then everyone forgot about it.

@sonicspike41

Well, if one of the dance moves was the "Throw batteries at Chad", I'd be on board. Otherwise, I guess I'll just shut up.

@RickGhastly

Well you're in luck because Gunstringer is $20 right now at Best Buy. And it comes with Fruit Ninja Kinect.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/The+Gunstringer+-+Xbox+360/2935092.p?id=1218365478724&skuId=2935092&st=gunstringer&lp=1&cp=1

@sho220

Ooh, thanks!

@RickGhastly

bestbuy has gunstringer for 20 but will prob be off sale in the morning.

@(Unverified)
I'm sorry for pissing in your coffee this morning, man; I didn't think you'd act like this on such an uplifting article.

Can't wait for them to run dance central into the ground.. as is there business strategy with all their franchises.

@(Unverified) Let me guess, you exclusively play Call of Duty, and have a bed spread with camouflage blankets. Oh, and you were never loved as a child.

@JCat I'm thinking more along the lines of Sony fanboy. They all talk about how Microsoft milks everything. Either way, he's a douche.

@(Unverified)
"as is there business strategy with all their franchises."

nope

Games like Dance Central isn't my cup of tea, but I'd be an idiot to deny that the game is good. I would get it if I ever bought a Kinect.

That's nice.now make something cool for my playstation already :( preferably with move.I bought it and do absolutely nothing with it >.

@Knives Chau give it to your gf. i'm sure she can get use out of it when ur not around... :)

@(Unverified)

Oh look an unverified douche that wants to show how much of a dick they are in a story about a dev's turn around success.

Or they could just offer DLC that people actually want for their existing platforms...

Seriously HMX? Releasing the Country Track Pack as DLC is a joke. Everyone that actually wanted those songs bought the pack via retail. No one else that plays RB gives a crap about country music... Or any of the not-so-spectacular releases you've been crapping out for the past year now. Limp Bizkit, Coldplay... Ugh.

Still living the dream! I'm very pleased to hear this.
http://kotaku.com/235431/harmonix-lives-the-dream

You know I'm sure its a symbiotic relationship. Dance Central is probably the only current thing keeping Kinect afloat till better games comes out for it.

Had they not sold off the Guitar Hero franchise, the bubble probably wouldn't have burst, because they'd have actually taken their time with it and done it properly, rather than THE SAME GAME EVERY FOUR MONTHS.

Dance Central

How Dance Central saved Harmonix

Reader Comments (40)

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 12:33PM The Cole Train said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 1:14PM FdUmCh said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 6:27PM GuitarHero666 said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 12:42PM Uncle Jesse said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 12:48PM dtrain1183 said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 12:48PM Shockwave said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 12:52PM niakori said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 1:07PM Hoops said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 1:15PM Undulation said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 2:30PM Tachyonic Cargo said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 3:48PM JCat said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 1:14PM Undulation said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 1:30PM bloodlinejake said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 1:38PM copa said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 1:46PM KiraXD said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 1:48PM Schlecht said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 8:03PM Bearxor said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 1:22PM bargaingamer said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 1:29PM FdUmCh said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 1:30PM RickGhastly said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 2:36PM sonicspike41 said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 2:42PM Tachyonic Cargo said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 3:45PM RickGhastly said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 3:50PM RickGhastly said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 4:18PM sho220 said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 4:33PM RickGhastly said

Posted: Nov 6th 2011 12:55AM aic007 said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 1:44PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 2:01PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 3:51PM JCat said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 6:11PM AFATALERR0R said

Posted: Nov 7th 2011 10:06AM smidget said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 2:33PM ColorblindMonk said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 2:36PM Knives Chau said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 2:55PM onlysublime said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 2:58PM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 4:45PM Apakal said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 10:08PM JimJim said

Posted: Nov 6th 2011 1:28AM KinseySS said

Posted: Nov 6th 2011 6:33PM britboyj27 said

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