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Harmonix

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Harmonix
Information
Type Subsidiary
Industry Video games, music games
Founded 1995
Founder Alex Rigopulos, Eran Egozy
Headquarters Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Products Harmonix Music VR, Rock Band VR, SingSpace, Audica, Dance Central (VR), Fortnite Festival
Parent Epic Games (since 2021)
Website https://www.harmonixmusic.com

Harmonix (Harmonix Music Systems, Inc.) is an American developer of music video games, based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a subsidiary of Epic Games since November 2021.[1][2] Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, who met at the MIT Media Lab, founded the studio in 1995.[1][3] It is best known for developing Guitar Hero and the Rock Band and Dance Central series.[3][2]

Between 2016 and 2020 Harmonix released several Virtual Reality games: Harmonix Music VR for PlayStation VR, Rock Band VR for the Oculus Rift, the karaoke app SingSpace for Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Go, the rhythm shooter Audica for PC VR headsets, PlayStation VR and Oculus Quest, and a VR Dance Central for the Oculus Quest and Rift.[4][5][6][7] Two of them, Rock Band VR and Dance Central, were Oculus Studios titles; UploadVR reported that Oculus fully funded Dance Central.[8][9] Since the Epic acquisition the studio has worked on music gameplay for Fortnite, including Fortnite Festival.[10]

Reviewed 15 October 2026. Founding, ownership changes (MTV 2006, Columbus Nova affiliate 2010, Epic 2021), the five VR titles' release dates, platforms, prices and reviews, the 2023 online shutdowns and Fortnite Festival checked against every cited source. About review dates.

History

Founding and early games

Egozy and Rigopulos met in the MIT Media Lab's Opera of the Future group. Egozy holds MIT degrees from 1993 and 1995 and Rigopulos from 1992 and 1994. According to MIT News, Rigopulos proposed controlling the pair's generative music system with a joystick, and the joystick-based system became one of the Media Lab's most popular demonstrations. They founded Harmonix because they wanted to keep working on the system but doubted that any company would pay them to do so.[3] The company's own site gives 1995 as its founding year.[1] Its first product, a program called Axe, sold poorly; Egozy called it a "total flop". Harmonix also built a system for Disney's Epcot park and tried to bring its software to karaoke machines in Japan.[3]

Harmonix developed Guitar Hero, released in 2005. MIT News reports that the smaller of the company's two development teams finished the game in about nine months, at a time when Harmonix had a staff of 45. The franchise later passed to Activision, and Harmonix went on to create Rock Band.[3]

Ownership changes

On 22 September 2006 InformationWeek reported that MTV Networks, part of Viacom, had agreed to buy Harmonix, then described as a music video game maker in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for US$175 million in cash. Shareholders could also receive earn-out payments through 2008 if set financial targets were met, and Rigopulos was to remain chief executive.[11] On 23 December 2010 Viacom announced that it had sold Harmonix to Harmonix-SBE Holdings LLC, an affiliate of the New York investment firm Columbus Nova, without disclosing financial terms.[12]

Epic Games and Harmonix announced on 23 November 2021 that Epic was acquiring the studio. Epic said Harmonix would work with its teams on "musical journeys and gameplay for Fortnite" while continuing to support existing titles such as Rock Band 4, and Harmonix said it planned to bring its music game experiences to the metaverse.[2] MIT News described Harmonix as part of Epic Games the following month.[3]

Under Epic Games

In December 2022 Epic announced that online services for a group of older games would be switched off on 24 January 2023. The Harmonix titles affected included Rock Band 1 to 3 and Dance Central 1 to 3, while online multiplayer for the VR Dance Central and for Rock Band 4 remained available.[13] Club386 reported that SingSpace would no longer be accessible to players from the same date.[14]

Fortnite Festival, a rhythm game mode developed by Harmonix, launched for free inside Fortnite on 9 December 2023. It has a Main Stage mode, in which players match button inputs to a song, and a Jam Stage, in which up to four players remix songs in real time.[15] In January 2024 Harmonix's Daniel Sussman wrote that the studio had spent about two years developing Fortnite Festival, that the 25 January release would be the last weekly Rock Band 4 DLC, and that support for Rock Band 4 instruments was coming to Fortnite Festival.[10]

VR work

Harmonix designer Jon Carter called Harmonix Music VR the company's "first foray into the medium" when he announced it for Sony's Project Morpheus in June 2015.[16] The project had first been announced in September 2014 as a music visualizer for Samsung's Gear VR, built on the company's Music Analysis Engine technology.[17] It was released for PlayStation VR on 13 October 2016 at US$14.99, with four music-reactive worlds and support for the player's own MP3 files loaded from a USB flash drive.[4]

Rock Band VR was announced by Palmer Luckey at The Game Awards in Los Angeles in December 2015 as a made-for-VR game developed with Harmonix for the Oculus Rift.[18] Published by Oculus Studios, it was released on 23 March 2017.[8] It required Oculus Touch, together with a clip accessory included in the Touch box, and it worked with any Rock Band 4 guitar controller. A US$69.99 bundle contained a code for the game and a wireless Rock Band Fender Stratocaster controller.[5] Game Informer gave it 6.5 out of 10, and UploadVR gave it 7 out of 10.[8][19] A week after launch, UploadVR reported that Harmonix had laid off 17 staff; the studio said the cuts were made to "align with our current and anticipated development needs".[19]

SingSpace, a social karaoke game, was released for Gear VR on 13 April 2017 with 20 songs, multiplayer rooms where friends take turns singing, and optional subscriptions for a larger music library.[20] An Oculus Go version with cross-play support for Gear VR followed on 2 May 2018.[21]

Audica, which Harmonix called a "VR rhythm shooter", was announced in February 2019 for the Oculus Rift and SteamVR. Players fire blasters at targets in time with the music, with hold shots, sideways targets, rapid strings of notes and notes that are struck with the gun.[22] It entered early access on Steam and the Oculus Store on 7 March 2019 for US$19.99 with 10 songs.[23] Version 1.0 launched on 5 November 2019 on PlayStation VR, Steam, the Oculus Store and Viveport, adding a campaign mode and bringing the core soundtrack to 33 songs.[6] The Oculus Quest version followed on 28 January 2020, with cross-buy for Rift owners.[24]

Harmonix announced a VR Dance Central for the Oculus Quest, Rift and Rift S on 27 March 2019, describing it as a day-one Quest launch title with a 32-song soundtrack and the series' first synchronous online multiplayer.[7] UploadVR reported that Oculus had fully funded the game as an Oculus Studios title, that one purchase covered both headsets, and that the game tracks the player's head and hand movements to match them against the dance moves.[9] UploadVR's review gave the launch date as 21 May 2019 on Oculus Quest and Rift S.[25]

Title Release Platforms Notes
Harmonix Music VR 13 October 2016 PlayStation VR First announced for Gear VR in 2014; music visualizer with four worlds; US$14.99[17][4]
Rock Band VR 23 March 2017 Oculus Rift with Oculus Touch Published by Oculus Studios; works with Rock Band 4 guitar controllers; US$69.99 bundle with a Fender Stratocaster controller[8][5]
SingSpace 13 April 2017 (Gear VR); 2 May 2018 (Oculus Go) Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Go Social karaoke; no longer accessible from 24 January 2023[20][21][14]
Audica 7 March 2019 (early access); 5 November 2019 (1.0); 28 January 2020 (Quest) Oculus Rift, SteamVR, Viveport, PlayStation VR, Oculus Quest Rhythm shooter[23][6][24]
Dance Central (VR) 21 May 2019 Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift S Oculus Studios title; cross-buy; online multiplayer kept after the January 2023 shutdowns[9][25][13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "About". Harmonix Music Systems. https://www.harmonixmusic.com/about. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Harmonix Is Being Acquired By Epic Games". Game Informer. 2021-11-23. https://gameinformer.com/2021/11/23/harmonix-is-being-acquired-by-epic-games. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Zach Winn (2021-12-14). "Harmonix keeps innovating, with lasting impact". MIT News. https://news.mit.edu/2021/harmonix-music-gameplay-1214. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Nick Mudry (2016-10-13). "Unlock Your Music Library With Harmonix Music VR!". Harmonix Blog. Harmonix Music Systems. https://www.harmonixmusic.com/blog/unlock-your-music-library-with-harmonix-music-vr. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Joe Durbin (2017-02-06). "Rock Band VR for Oculus Rift Gets March Release Date, Pre-Orders Begin Today". UploadVR. https://uploadvr.com/harmonix-rock-band-vr-march-release/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Nick Mudry (2019-11-05). "AUDICA v1.0 Update Notes: Campaign, New Environments, Blasters, and Songs and More". Harmonix Blog. Harmonix Music Systems. https://www.harmonixmusic.com/blog/audica-v10-update-notes-campaign-new-environments-blasters-and-songs-and-more. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Katey Farmanian (2019-03-27). "Dance Central for Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, and Oculus Rift S". Harmonix Blog. Harmonix Music Systems. https://www.harmonixmusic.com/blog/introducing-dance-central-for-oculus-quest-oculus-rift-and-oculus-rift-s. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Brian Shea (2017-04-17). "Rock Band VR Review: Falling A Little Flat". Game Informer. https://gameinformer.com/games/rock_band_vr/b/oculusrift/archive/2017/04/17/rock-band-vr-game-informer-review. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 David Jagneaux (2019-03-27). "Hands-On: Dance Central VR Made Me Dance Like No One Was Watching". UploadVR. https://uploadvr.com/dance-central-vr-preview/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Daniel Sussman (2024-01-17). "An Update on Rock Band 4 DLC". Harmonix Blog. Harmonix Music Systems. https://www.harmonixmusic.com/blog/an-update-on-rock-band-4-dlc. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  11. ↑ Antone Gonsalves (2006-09-22). "MTV To Acquire Harmonix Music". InformationWeek. https://www.informationweek.com/it-leadership/mtv-to-acquire-harmonix-music. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  12. ↑ "Viacom Sells Harmonix Music Systems (press release)". Nintendo World Report. Viacom. 2010-12-23. https://nintendoworldreport.com/pr/24595/viacom-sells-harmonix-music-systems. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Ana Kessler (2022-12-16). "Epic To Turn Off Online Services for a Number of Older Games". 80 Level. https://80.lv/articles/epic-to-turn-off-online-services-for-a-number-of-older-games. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Fahd Temsamani (2022-12-19). "Epic Games shutting down some services for 17 popular games". Club386. https://www.club386.com/epic-games-shutting-down-some-services-for-17-popular-games. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  15. ↑ Bradly Shankar (2023-12-09). "Fortnite Festival is one of the coolest social gaming experiences I've had in years". MobileSyrup. https://mobilesyrup.com/2023/12/09/fortnite-festival-harmonix-preview/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  16. ↑ Jon Carter (2015-06-17). "Harmonix Music VR Coming to Project Morpheus". PlayStation Blog. Sony Interactive Entertainment. https://blog.playstation.com/?p=157263. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 S. Prell (2014-09-07). "Harmonix Music VR coming to Samsung's Gear VR headset". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2014-09-07-harmonix-music-vr-coming-to-samsungs-gear-vr-headset.html. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  18. ↑ Drew Olanoff (2015-12-03). "Oculus Announces Rock Band VR For The Rift". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2015/12/03/oculus-announces-rockbandvr/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Jamie Feltham (2017-03-30). "Lay Offs Hit Rock Band VR Developer Harmonix". UploadVR. https://uploadvr.com/lay-offs-hit-rock-band-vr-dev-harmonix/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Riley Davis (2017-04-13). "SingSpace Is Now Available for Samsung Gear VR". Harmonix Blog. Harmonix Music Systems. https://www.harmonixmusic.com/blog/singspace-is-now-available-for-samsung-gear-vr. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Elisha Deogracias (2018-05-02). "All the world's a stage with SingSpace available on VR platforms today". Gaming Trend. https://gamingtrend.com/news/all-the-worlds-a-stage-with-singspace-available-on-vr-platforms-today/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  22. ↑ Ben Lang (2019-02-13). "'Audica' is an Inventive "VR Rhythm Shooter" From the Studio Behind 'Rock Band'". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/audica-vr-rhythm-shooter-announcement-harmonix-rock-band/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Mark Smith (2019-03-07). "Audica Launches Into Early Access". Game Chronicles. https://gamechronicles.com/audica-launches-into-early-access. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Harry Baker (2020-01-23). "Audica Launches On Oculus Quest January 28 With Rift Cross-Buy". UploadVR. https://uploadvr.com/audica-quest-launch/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 David Jagneaux (2019-05-19). "Dance Central VR Review: Grooving To The Music". UploadVR. https://uploadvr.com/dance-central-vr-review/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
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