Topic: Harmonix rocks out a $209 million bonus?
What we heard: In 2006, MTV's purchase of Harmonix raised some eyebrows, thanks to its $175 million price tag. However, the studio's first MTV-branded effort, Rock Band, had appeared to have come close to breaking even. According to Sunday's financial report from MTV parent Viacom, some "1.1 million bundles" of the game were sold in North America in 2007, generating over $185 million in revenue. According to NPD, both the bundled and unbundled versions of the game have sold over 1.475 million copies in the US alone, generating just above $238 million in revenue as of January 31.
While successful, Rock Band still hasn't yet met the billion-dollar payday of the Harmonix-created Guitar Hero franchise, which Activision picked up for under $100 million in 2006. And now comes news that Rock Band may be breaking even after all. Today in the wake of a report on the journalism insider site Paidcontent.org, numerous game-news outlets reported that in 2007, Viacom paid Harmonix a $208.7 million bonus for its work on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 2 title--which, according to EA, is also Wii-bound.