Comments on: There Can Be Only One?

By: Snap Wilson

Snap Wilson — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:01:06 +0000

Looking at the individual elements:

1. MTV Games wants the “platform war” to end.

Well, that’s nice, but I’m not sure it means anything other than pointing to the financial reality that’s out there. Competing for available music is costly to the competitors.

2. EA is unlikely to extend the distribution agreement with Viacom/Harmonix when it expires at the end of fiscal year 2011.

I’m not sure how the writer came to this interpretation. EA doesn’t have any Rock Band titles on the schedule for FY11 because Harmonix hasn’t announced any. That seems fairly cut-and-dried to me. I imagine that there’s some extra expense in the distribution of Rock Band bundles, and the price continues to drop on these mammoth storage hogs, reducing profitability, so EA wanting out doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility to me.

3. Viacom is trying to reclaim $150 million it paid to Harmonix employees based on 2007 performance.

Worrisome, but not unexpected, and hopefully the shareholders accounted for the potential shortfall and didn’t spend it all on hookers and blow. Again, this doesn’t suggest to me that Viacom wants out (and thanks for explaining the 10-k stuff in your other post).

4. Viacom wants to pay lower royalties for music included in Rock Band (3 and 4 combined: Viacom is making much, much less money from music games than they thought they would).

This is only surprising to me in that they’re hitting up the music industry for their profit-increasing measures rather than the consumer. I do believe we’ll see an increase in DLC prices at some point. With the sales of actual games and bundles going down, the revenue has to come from somewhere. Ultimately, all we have here is bargaining. Viacom wanting more money doesn’t mean they’re ready to throw the whole enterprise away.

5. Bobby Kotick said that Activision made a mistake not partnering with Harmonix.

Means absolutely nothing, or at most, it’s the equivalent of MTV’s statements about a console war being bad for everyone. It would be silly for Kotick to refuse to acknowledge that Harmonix hadn’t made something of themselves.

Now the idea of having Activision contracting Harmonix to chart for their games makes sense for everyone. Activision gets an experienced team dedicated to rhythm games and not working on Tony Hawk or Ultimate Alliance half the time. Harmonix gets some much-needed revenue. Activision and MTV games are still free to make their own deals with record labels, and if the same piece of music gets licensed by the other brand, voila, 90% of the work is already done. Why wouldn’t that work?

By: cashOD

cashOD — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:32:39 +0000

When there is no competition there is no juice. Look at satellite radio? Now that its one company with an average product who cares? Look at wrestling. Now that Vince owns the whole thing he had to create factions inside the WWE to generate competition. Competition drives ingenuity. When there’s no one to one-up where will the new features come from?

By: TrogdorForHire

TrogdorForHire — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:49:37 +0000

Kotick is a serious douche-nozzle. There’s no way HMX would let themselves get Neversofted.

It’s a utopian concept, GH and RB as an ice-dancing couple in Hades.

By: Locke

Locke — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:35:44 +0000

Being a rabid player of Rockband, I sort of wonder how long the model can go. Personally, in a perfect world, I would like to see one set of hardware for Rockband. Not just universal guitars and drumkits, but one box to play on that would let me enjoy the rockband tracks and online play. Unfortunately, this model further expands the issues outlined above.

If the margins on selling music were not so razor thin, the argument would be much smaller. I think we’re quickly approaching an “event horizon” for the music industry and consumers. Someone’s model needs to change if distributors want to continue to make money

By: ramza89

ramza89 — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:31:30 +0000

AFAIK the possibility of that happening isn’t too farfetch’d. Seeing as how customs for both GH and RB use .mid charts, it would be incredibly easy to have the Harmonix’s charts in Neversoft’s games, and vice versa. However, I don’t see it happening in the near future, or at all. There’s such a small window for profit and it all comes down to fanboyism on many new games, and if they combine and keep only one UI, engine, etc., all the fanboys on the side that loses will more than likely abandon buying new rhythm games.

By: Fabby

Fabby — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:13:00 +0000

Yea well I don’t really think that both will work together any time soon. I personally think it would cost too much to make the DLC compatible for both games, but I am no expert so yea. They could create a “blueprint” and give it to both developer studios so they could use it for their games. Honestly though…I am not sure if Activision is ready to swallow that bitter pill. Yea, I know it’s all about the profit. Actually, a thought just crossed my mind. Activision will look like an idiot either way. If they don’t work together with HMX they will probably lose a lot of money and if they work together with HMX/Via they will look like idiots because they didn’t purchase HMX when they had the chance.

I have almost all GH games but I am just not fond of Activision.

I am also liking the idea of exporting songs from one franchise to another but again, that is very unlikely. I think it is more likely that someone will chart those songs for RBN.

Yes, I am sorry, I am such a skeptic. I just don’t see how those two can fit together <.<