Epic Games bought Harmonix, the studio behind rhythm games including Rock Band and Fuser, to help support their boring “metaverse-building” effort. The overlords of Fortnite and Unreal Engine say that Harmonix “will work closely with Epic to develop the musical and gameplay journey for Fortnite“. Battle royale has seen some fancy musical performances, with elaborate in-game events promoting pop stars, including Travis Scott and Ariana Grande, but hopefully Harmonix isn’t assigned for eternal advertising?
“Harmonix has a track record of creating fun and engaging music experiences designed for everyone to enjoy,” Epic said in a statement. their announcement. “As we worked to build the metaverse, this expertise was needed to re-imagine how music is experienced, created, and delivered.”
Oh my gosh, the terrifying specter of the metaverse popped into its head again. For Epic, the concept clearly means a virtual platform where all the major brands from around the entertainment world can come together to promote products and sell children’s skins.
“Music has brought millions of people together in Fortnite, from our emojis to concerts and global events,” said Alain Tascan, vice president of game development at Epic. “Together with the Harmonix team, we will transform the way players experience music, from passive listeners to active participants.”
They’ve done some gorgeous promotional events, epic stunts that take players through amazing locations, but active engagement is often limited to travel and can be a point. violence. Here’s the Ariana Grande event from August, with skins that players can buy:
Harmonix’s private announcement address what this means for their current games: not much. They still plan to continue the Rock Band DLC, still plan to continue the Fuser events, and still plan to sell their games on Steam.
Founded in 1995, Harmonix has created rhythm games including Frequency, Amplitude, Dance Center, Twitch Songs and Controllers, games built on top of songs, where you play to the tune or work to the beat. They are best known from the glory days of plastic instruments as the creators of both Guitar Hero and Rock Band. They seem to have struggled after that market crash, fired in 2014, canceled the FPS rhythm Chroma, and failed to crowdfund a PC port of Rock Band 4, but they continued. Epic’s deep pockets and Fortnite’s desire as an advertising platform could give Harmonix the security and accessibility to thrive with epic music. But it would be a shame if their remarkable talent was only shown through advertisements in Fortnite.
Like I said when Nike starts advertising in Roblox, Epic and Facebook has the most boring, bland, branded visions of ‘the metaverse’ and I have no interest in any such final dish. Sadly, I accept that those are visions that we will see more of in the coming years as the big trucks are brought in trying to make them a reality.
