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Harmonix: Without Kickstarter, Amplitude 'goes back on the shelf'
Since Harmonix launched its Kickstarter project for a successor to the Amplitude series earlier this month, one of the pervading questions the developer fielded is just why it opted to go the crowdfunding route for the cherished, cult classic game. While Harmonix developed popular games like Dance Central and the upcoming Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved, the developer reiterated that it is an "independently owned and operated studio" in a recent blog, and that some of its projects are so ambitious in scale that it cannot "responsibly make it completely out of pocket." Normally, that means a publisher foots the bill for the game, but that isn't the case for Harmonix. "We've sought other options out before coming to Kickstarter: there aren't publishing funds waiting in the wings or some third party who's eager to offset our costs – either we fund the game here, or the game goes back on the shelf," Harmonix Director of Publishing and PR John Drake wrote. The Kickstarter project's goal is $775,000, which Drake clarified is "less than half of the project budget for the game," and that even with $800,000 coming from Kickstarter backers, the developer would "be risking more of Harmonix's money than we probably should – all because we want to make this game so badly." As for the developer's choice to turn to crowdfunding, Kickstarter may not be the appropriate route to fund the game, but not because Harmonix is "too big" for the platform. Rather, it may not be big enough: Looking back to our six-month analysis of the video game crowdfunding space ending November 2013, of the 186 projects that were funded on the platform, just eight earned over $775,000 (4.3 percent). As of this writing, the project is sitting at $254,149 with eight days to go before the campaign closes. Meanwhile, Microsoft's recent announcement that it will begin offering the Xbox One without its Kinect camera elicited some strong reactions from Harmonix, which relied heavily on the device's support. [Image: Harmonix]
Harmonix has 'three and/or more' new games in the works, and none are Rock Band or Dance Central
There's kind of a lot of stuff going on at Harmonix Music Systems. At least according to Harmonix director of communications and brand management John Drake, who teased a variety of new "Triple A IPs" that the studio has in the works – beyond Dance Central 3 and Rock Band Blitz. "Dance Central and Rock Band are kind of our big established IPs. And man oh man are we working on multiple – like, more than two – new triple A IPs, right now that we can't talk about at all," Drake said on the latest Harmonix podcast.He got even more specific, pointing out that "none of them are Rock Band or Dance Central titles," nor are they re-releases/new versions of Frequency or Amplitude. "It's not a previous game. It's not Led Zeppelin Rock Band. This isn't – I'm not talking about Rock Band 4. I'm not talking about the next Dance Central game. I'm talking about new, crazy stuff."And not necessarily music stuff, either, at least not in the strictest sense. "Some of them are music games, some of them are not full-on rhythm action games. Some of them are brand new things that we created from our gut and brains here at Harmonix. Some are things that we're expanding the universe of," Drake detailed.Though not much concrete information was doled out, Drake was a bit more clear about when we'll hear more. "Crazy stuff to talk about hopefully next year," he said. He worries that one of those projects is more prone to leaking than others, as "There's a lot of people working on one of them." Harmonix? Leak? Never. And it's always possible we'll hear more about those next Dance Central and Rock Band games sooner than the mystery stuff. "There may be some more Rock Band or Dance Central stuff in the works too," he said. The future is unknown.
Rock Band 3 details: RB2 export confirmed for all consoles, 'pro' mode DLC may be more expensive
A recent PAX interview by RockBandAide with Harmonix's John Drake reveals a ton of minutiae for hardcore fans, and confirms that Rock Band 3 will allow you to export the RB2 tracks for a fee -- as you could with RB1. Drake states that the the export feature will work for all three consoles, though there are always "a couple songs that get complicated" when it comes to re-licensing. Official pricing and details regarding the export should be available shortly. Drake also states that while regular DLC will keep the regular price ($2 per song), content made for Rock Band 3's Pro Mode will "probably" be more expensive. Harmonix has "a lot more work to do" on those tracks, and doesn't wish to increase the cost of the regular DLC to subsidize the Pro DLC that's aimed at a smaller group of players. %Gallery-99242%
Harmonix taking 'wait and see' approach with The Beatles DLC
You're undoubtedly familiar with our Rock Band Weekly feature. Harmonix has been able to produce weekly DLC for the Rock Band franchise across nearly every platform it graces, so it came as a surprise when we discovered the studio's hesitant attitude towards The Beatles. While three albums are already in the works as DLC, Harmonix representative John Drake told The BBPS that future releases are entirely dependent on sales of the initial batch of DLC. His explanation? "It costs thousands of dollars" to produce the DLC. "It's not like Rock Band where we wait for the masters to come in and just author them ... its like, send people to Abbey Road, use the original tape, separate them out," Drake detailed. In addition to the audio work that must be done, Harmonix has also promised to include original dreamscapes for future downloadable content as well. It seems likely Harmonix will find the sales necessary to produce more DLC, considering the retail success of the game so far. "If they sell well, we'll have a lot more content," Drake promises.
Harmonix to 're-energize' its franchises after The Beatles: Rock Band
Sure, The Beatles: Rock Band developer Harmonix has been busy working on next week's big release for some time now, but did you know it's also working on "re-energizing" its "core franchises?" Harmonix PR overlord John Drake told CVG as much, saying that while the studio is ready to refocus on its existing portfolio, it's been busy making sure it got The Beatles game 100 percent right. "We were terrified while making the game, hoping we don't make [Apple Corps] mad at any point -- they're really nice and easy to work with, but this is The Beatles, you can't afford to mess this up." Considering the longtime rhythm game developer more or less re-energized its Amplitude and Frequency franchises with Rock Band Unplugged, we're taking a wild stab in the dark here when we suggest Drake's likely talking about Rock Band 3. And does "re-energizing" in this case mean "adding Project Natal functionality?" We're not sure yet, but we've got our fingers as uncrossed as possible, just in case.
Video interview: Harmonix's John Drake
09.09.09 is less than a month away, and Harmonix is ready to reveal all the secrets of its upcoming The Beatles game. We chatted with Harmonix's John Drake to go over the recently unveiled Story mode, and the exciting unlockables hidden away in The Beatles: Rock Band. Below is a small text excerpt of the entire video interview:Any chance we'll see any more archival videos and photos released as DLC?I don't think so just because of how downloadable content works on three different consoles, and to keep parity, how it would need to be engineered. I know our code team's pretty amazing, but that sort of stuff is not how we look to share that media. It's a pretty secure and safe media that we really want to keep close to the vest, just as Apple has kept it in their vaults. I don't see it being downloadable content. What you see on the disc is what we have for extras for the moment.Will we see any retail expansions for the game in the future?Unless we need to introduce a radical new feature, we're going to stick with that core disc and stick with that DLC mentality: add albums and songs on top of that. The Beatles have a finite catalog, but it's an infinitely amazing catalog with finite songs, so we're still hoping to get as much content from Apple as we can and give it to fans to customize their Beatles playlist.
