Harmonix Music Systems

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Harmonix Music Systems
Type Subsidiary
Founded 1995
Founder Alex Rigopulos, Eran Egozy
Headquarters Flag of the United StatesCambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Industry Software & Programming
Owner Viacom
Parent MTV Networks
Website http://www.harmonixmusic.com

Harmonix Music Systems (or simply Harmonix) is a video game development company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States. They are known for their many highly acclaimed and top-selling music video games.

Harmonix is best known as the developer of Rock Band as well as the original developer of the Guitar Hero series up until Guitar Hero 3.

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[edit] History

Harmonix was founded in 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy who met while attending MIT.[1] The company was built on the premise that the experience of performing music could become accessible to those who would otherwise have trouble learning a traditional instrument.

The company's earliest product was The Axe: Titans of Classic Rock on PC CD-ROM. The Axe enabled consumers to easily perform unique instrumental solos by using a PC joystick. Harmonix then designed "CamJam", which performed similar functions, this time using simple body gestures to trigger music sequences.[1] CamJam was utilized at Disney theme parks.[2]

In 1997, the Harmonix team focused on Japan. There, the first music video games were becoming increasingly popular and successful. These games included PaRappa the Rapper, UmJammer Lammy, Beatmania, and Dance Dance Revolution; all of which focused on bringing musical experiences to gamers through simple, understandable interfaces commonly found in games. It was these games that inspired Harmonix to develop its first music video game, FreQuency, which began development in 1999.[1][3]

To develop FreQuency, Rigopulos and Egozy formed a larger team, finding many of their new employees to be musicians.[3] Featuring songs by a number of underground electronica artists, FreQuency allowed players to perform and remix a variety of music. The game was backed by SCEA Vice President of Product Development, Shuhei Yoshida. Released in 2001 on the PlayStation 2, FreQuency was critically acclaimed and won numerous awards,[4] though it failed to become a mainstream success. Harmonix developed the a sequel to FreQuency, Amplitude, released in 2003. Several changes were made from its predecessor to broaden the game's appeal, from gameplay tweaks to a more mainstream soundtrack. And again, Amplitude achieved awards, critical praise,[5] and a small cult following, but it was not a financial hit.[1]

After Amplitude, Harmonix teamed up with Konami to create the Karaoke Revolution franchise. Konami, known for their Bemani line of music games, published the Karaoke Revolution titles, of which Harmonix developed and released three "volumes" between 2003 and 2004.

Also in 2004, Sony Computer Entertainment released the Harmonix project EyeToy: AntiGrav. A departure from music games, the title used the PlayStation 2 EyeToy camera peripheral to enable one's body to perform as a controller for a futuristic extreme sports game.

In 2005, publisher RedOctane released the Harmonix-developed game Guitar Hero. The game not only features similar gameplay elements to FreQuency and Amplitude, but also owes much of its basic gameplay framework to Konami's own guitar-based video game series "GuitarFreaks". Greg LoPicollo, one of the members of Harmonix and creators of Guitar Hero, acknowledges that "Guitar Freaks" provided the team with some inspiration, but their project made the guitar more complex and produced a song list geared towards an American audience. This inspiration also manifests itself in Guitar Hero's standout feature: a five-button guitar-shaped controller, designed uniquely for the game. Guitar Hero became largely successful, both critically and commercially, resulting in the well-received 2006 sequel Guitar Hero II, also developed by Harmonix. LoPicollo strongly emphasized the importance of the song's American play list. He wanted the Guitar Hero series to focus on hard rock music such as Ozzy Ozbourne, Judas Priest, and Blue Oyster Cult. However, some songs selected in the play list were not part of the hard rock sub genre like The Ramones. Still though, LoPicollo explained that the mission of the game was to create a game that helped 10 and 12 year old kids learn about music they might not otherwise hear about. As fore mentioned in the opening paragraph, Harmonix was founded on the desire to try to use technology to give the experience of playing music to non-musicians[6].

In September 2006, MTV Networks announced that it was acquiring Harmonix on behalf of MTV for $175 million.[7] Harmonix's last Guitar Hero game for RedOctane, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, was released in July 2007, thus fulfilling their contractual obligations with the publisher.

In its first project announced as part of MTV, Harmonix expanded upon the design of Guitar Hero with the game Rock Band, which incorporates three different peripherals: guitar/bass, microphone, and drums. Rock Band was first released in November 2007.

[edit] Employee bands

Due to the nature of titles developed by Harmonix, a large percentage of staff members are well-known in the Boston and US music scene. These include:

  • Kasson Crooker and Sean Roche, members of the band Freezepop.
  • Jason Kendall, lead singer of the band The Amazing Crowns.
  • Ben Carr, member of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
  • Daniel Sussman, member of The Acro-Brats.
  • Eric Brosius, Terri Brosius and Greg LoPiccolo, former members of Tribe.
  • Bryn Bennett, co-founder and lead guitarist in Bang Camaro
  • Keith Smith, singer/ guitarist for Anarchy Club., and former singer for C60.
  • Dan Schmidt, vocalist and guitarist in Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives.
  • Helen McWilliams, Elena Siegman and 'Leanne', members of Vagiant.
  • Izzy "Sparks" Maxwell, member of Count Zero and Death of the Cool.
  • Naoko Takamoto, also known as Plural and a member of That Handsome Devil.
  • Ryan Lesser, Jason Kendall, Brian Gibson and Paul Lyons, members of Megasus.
  • Brian Gibson of Lightning Bolt and Megasus.
  • Phil Beaudreau and Johannes "Rash" Raasina, members of the band Shaimus.
  • Ryan Lesser, Dare Matheson, Matt Gilpin, and Jason Warburg, members of The Gert Jonnys.
  • Dan Teasdale, Chris Foster, Rob Kay and Kelly Scott, members of Speck.
  • Pete Maguire, is a member of inter:sect.
  • Geoff Pitsch, Dan Brakeley, Devon Newsom, and John Eskew, members of Father Octopus.
  • Scott Sinclair, member of the Model Sons.
  • Jeff Allen, part of Breaking Wheel (Artillery in Guitar Hero (video game) and Death Of The Cool
  • Adam Arrigo, John Drake, Jon Carter and Matt Boch, members of Blanks. and The Main Drag [8][9]
  • Kurt Davis, frontman for The Konks

[edit] Gameography

[edit] Patents Portfolio

Harmonix has assembled a modest IP portfolio, which includes:

Real-time music creation system
Real-time music creation
Method and apparatus for facilitating group musical interaction over a network
Method and apparatus for facilitating group musical interaction over a network
Method and apparatus for displaying musical data in a three dimensional environment

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Interview with Alex Rigopulos at GameCritics.com
  2. ^ The Roar of IAAPA at livedesignonline.com
  3. ^ a b Behind the Scenes: Alex Rigopulos at GameSpot
  4. ^ FreQuency at Harmonix.com
  5. ^ Amplitude at Harmonix.com
  6. ^ Totilo, Stephen (2005-12-04). 'Guitar Hero': The Video Game That Literally Rocks (http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1518159/20051214/index.jhtml?headlines=true) Retrieved on 2008-02-06
  7. ^ Harmonix
  8. ^ The Harvard Crimson :: Arts :: Fill in the Blanks
  9. ^ Cokemachineglow Track Review

[edit] External links

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