Harmonix claims it was the driving force behind MTV Games.
MTV Games was shut down shortly after Viacom and Harmonix parted ways in 2010, and that apparently didn’t come as much of a surprise to the newly liberated studio. According to Development VP Greg LoPiccolo, Harmonix was the backbone that supported the entire MTV Games operation.
“Essentially our games had to carry the entire publishing infrastructure of MTV games which was not particularly efficient,” said LoPiccolo. “I think it became apparent that, in this day and age, you really need a big enough publishing organization to achieve economies of scale if you want to make it work and they didn’t really have that.”
Harmonix has since been purchased by the Columbus Nova investment group, and both parties are satisfied with the new arrangement.
“We’re very happy with our relationship with Columbus Nova and they seem like they really understand what our worth is and are happy to give us the freedom to develop our business. So we couldn’t be more happy with how things turned out,” continued LoPiccolo.
Now that Harmonix is free to explore new possibilities, it’ll be interesting to see if they decide to venture into territory beyond the music genre.
Source: IndustryGamers
