GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

Rock Band Dev Cuts 17 Jobs Amid Restructuring

"Today we made the difficult decision to say goodbye to 17 talented people..."

By on

17 Comments

Independent developer Harmonix, known for Rock Band and Dance Central, has enacted a new round of layoffs. A spokesperson for the Boston-based studio confirmed to GI.biz that 17 jobs were cut amid a round of layoffs related to a restructuring based on the needs of the studio.

"Today we made the difficult decision to say goodbye to 17 talented people as we restructured to align with our current and anticipated development needs," reads a line from the statement. "These people all played a role in making Harmonix and its games what they are today and we are more than grateful for their contributions. We are working to ensure that they are taken care of as we make this change."

No Caption Provided

Harmonix recently shipped Rock Band VR and announced a brand-new card-based music game called DropMix that it's making with toy giant Hasbro. Additionally, Harmonix is working on another virtual reality game called SingSpace. The studio also continues to support Rock Band 4.

As GI.biz explains, Harmonix has cut jobs now in four of the past five years. One of the deeper rounds of layoffs came in 2014, when Harmonix eliminated 37 positions. As part of that round of cuts, Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos stepped aside from his role as chief executive and transitioned to chief creative officer.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Rock Band 4
Join the conversation
There are 17 comments about this story
17 Comments  RefreshSorted By 
GameSpot has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to toxic conduct in comments. Any abusive, racist, sexist, threatening, bullying, vulgar, and otherwise objectionable behavior will result in moderation and/or account termination. Please keep your discussion civil.

Avatar image for ecilam
ecilam

54

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 38

User Lists: 0

ecilam

Does anyone know if the layoffs were all from the Rock Band division? I fear this might be true, but every time I ask on the Harmonix forums, my post gets deleted. :/

Upvote • 
Avatar image for PETERAKO
PETERAKO

2579

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

PETERAKO

Restructuring is a fancy way of saying "well, we aren't doing terribly well financially"

Upvote • 
Avatar image for heqteur
Heqteur

1745

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

Heqteur

Harmonix' R&D be like "Alrigth, we need some new ideas to get our company back to success.... How about.... A F2P MMO ROCK BAND GAME!!!".

Upvote • 
Avatar image for dev-raid1
Dev-RAiD1

696

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Dev-RAiD1

awww, so milking the same franchise ends up in layoffs???? who knew

3 • 
Avatar image for dlCHIEF58
dlCHIEF58

3655

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

dlCHIEF58

@dev-raid1: No, putting out sub par, stripped down products that pale compared to previous games that infuriate long time supporters leads to poor sales and thus layoffs. Not to mention putting out games no one asked for while ignoring numerous fan requests to put back in missing features in their flagship game.

2 • 
Avatar image for LPDisturbedHU
LPDisturbedHU

2063

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

LPDisturbedHU

@dev-raid1: They've been doing much more than just Rockband.

Harmonix seems to be one of the few devs out there that actually try to innovate and push games onto new forms of hardware. Hell, they heavily supported the Kinect (both the original and 2.0) up until MS dropped it's pack-in requirement with the Xbox One.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for dlCHIEF58
dlCHIEF58

3655

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

dlCHIEF58

@LPDisturbedHU: Harmonix hasn't innovated in a long time, just look at the so called Rock Band "4" game which has fewer features and options than RB1! Should have been called Rock Band Spotlight since it is as stripped down as Dance Central Spotlight was for this generation.

Furthermore, they STILL could have supported Kinect and made decent money at it like Virtual Air Guitar does. They would have been one of the only developers in the field thus less competition, and could have been a driving force to make people WANT a Kinect - instead they played scared.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for LPDisturbedHU
LPDisturbedHU

2063

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

LPDisturbedHU

@dlCHIEF58: Let's be honest, when MS removed the Kinect from Xbox bundles that pretty much killed the Kinect scene for games. Some indie developers made them, but we can safely assume that they don't sell very well (as the developer of "Fru" has stated for his well beloved Kinect title).

Fantasia was pretty great! And so was Dance Central: Spotlight (while having less features, I felt it reponded to the Kinect much easier!) Also, wren't the older DC titles full priced? DC: Spotlight was only $19.99.....

Upvote • 
Avatar image for dlCHIEF58
dlCHIEF58

3655

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

dlCHIEF58

@LPDisturbedHU: While DCS was only $20, it had FAR fewer features and songs - much less than 1/3 of the previous titles. Add in there was no import of past DC games made that game an insult to fans.

Also remember the original Kinect was no way a required peripheral for the 360, so using that mandatory inclusion killed it is pretty much hokum and a cop-out. Microsoft did fail the Kinect by failing to provide a reason for people to want it by not having enough game support - two launch titles were originally supposed to be Kinect titles (Ryse and Crimson Dragon) but were changed to controller based for some reason and Kinect Sports Rivals was delayed by a few months. All this we can lay on the poor management of the Xbox One launch by Mattrick and his team.

2 • 
Avatar image for LPDisturbedHU
LPDisturbedHU

2063

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

LPDisturbedHU

@dlCHIEF58: The Kinect jump was still a huge risk that Harmonix was willing to take!

We can't slap Harmonix's hand for not trying anything new when they have.... that's all I'm trying to get at.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for dev-raid1
Dev-RAiD1

696

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Dev-RAiD1

@LPDisturbedHU: innovate? do you work for them because thats 100 percent BS

2 • 
Avatar image for LPDisturbedHU
LPDisturbedHU

2063

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By LPDisturbedHU

@dev-raid1: Are you saying you wouldn't consider Rock Band, Fantasia, and Dance Central innovative games that are purely dedicated to external hardware?

I'd consider dropping a lot of money on Kinect and making fully responseful games for it is pretty innovative!

And no, I do not work for them. I do own a couple of their games, and neither of them are Rockband.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for dlCHIEF58
dlCHIEF58

3655

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

dlCHIEF58

@LPDisturbedHU: Rock Band "Spotlight" was far from innovative. It had fewer features than the first, then they had the gall to charge an additional fee for online play (something no other developer has ever done, setting a dangerous precedent) which they put in the minimal amount of work to implement. Same goes for DCS.

Harmonix USED to innovate and listen to their fanbase. Now not so much.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for LPDisturbedHU
LPDisturbedHU

2063

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

LPDisturbedHU

@dlCHIEF58: I had no idea about the online portion of Rock Band, but that still doesn't change the fact that Fantasia and Dance Central: Spotlight being highly innovative and well done titles (even if you feel that DC: S wasn't even worth a 1/3 of the original titles, it's still crazy how well both of those games work with the Kinect!)

Upvote • 
Avatar image for heqteur
Heqteur

1745

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

Heqteur

@LPDisturbedHU: Yeah... rehashing Rock Band for so long is totally inovative. I don't care they made 2 (or so) other games. Harmonix' bread and butter has been Rock Band all along (even trying to shove it further down our throat with VR) and now they're suffering the consequences.

2 • 
Avatar image for dlCHIEF58
dlCHIEF58

3655

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

dlCHIEF58

@heqteur: Did they hold a loved one hostage until you bought their games? They hardly forced anything down your throat as you always had a choice. Heaven forbid a game developer makes games they were good at in the past. Harmonix problem this generation was they removed all the past innovations and stripped the game down to the bare minimum - the reason they lost my support and respect. They have made some very poor business and developmental decisions and refuse to see the error of their ways.

2 • 
Avatar image for LPDisturbedHU
LPDisturbedHU

2063

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

LPDisturbedHU

@heqteur: Yes, they USE to shove Rockband down our throats. Then there was a break due to lack of sales. They brought it back after so many years and also lost on it.

Just because you don't count Fantasia and Dance Central doesn't mean they don't exist.....

Upvote •