The music game genre has been on a sharp decline for some time now, and Rock Band developer Harmonix’s latest sales figures are not looking too good. Third quarter results for Viacom showed that the studio suffered major losses with earnings declining 59%. The decline has forced Viacom to consider selling the studio, says The Wall Street Journal.
Viacom overall saw earnings rise this quarter with notable exception at Harmonix, who has been on a decline for the past several years. Though Viacom purchased Harmonix four years ago at the sum of $175 million, the company is expected to see a $299 million loss from “discontinued operations” as a result of the sale, says the Associated Press.
As of right now, there are no real indicators on who would look to purchase Harmonix, but analyst Doug Creutz of Cowan & Company believes that there is one major publisher that might be interested; “We speculated several weeks ago that, given the declines in the music genre, it would make sense to (re)combine the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, thus we believe Activision Blizzard is a potential buyer.”
Should the Rock Band and Guitar Hero brands merge, perhaps something might come out of a deal that could reinvigorate the (non-dance) music genre.
