What you need to know
- Harmonix is a Boston-based development studio best known for its work on the Rock Band franchise.
- Publisher and developer Epic Games is acquiring Harmonix.
- Harmonix will now be working on content for Fortnite, with more details coming at a later date.
Epic Games is acquiring Rock Band developer Harmonix, as announced on Tuesday. This follows prior acquisitions by Epic Games, such as Fall Guys development team Mediatonic. Founded in 1995, Harmonix is located in Boston, Massachusetts and has worked on games like Rock Band, Dance Central and more recently Fuser.
"Our team will work with Epic to create musical journeys and gameplay for Fortnite. While we're not ready to share any specifics, the whole team is incredibly excited to get started," the team writes in the announcement blog. The purchase price of the acquisition was not announced. Harmonix was previously owned by media conglomerate Viacom before being sold off in 2010.
Harmonix also confirmed that this acquisition is not affecting any plans for further Rock Band or Fuser support, with ideas for Rivals Season 26 "and beyond." Any games currently available on Steam or consoles are also intended to stay available, at least for the forseeable future. There's very few other details right now for just what the studio will be getting up to, though Harmonix notes that it will now be working to bring its "unique brand of musical gaming experiences to the Metaverse." Fortnite has been used to host various events in the past, including concerts and even films.
In addition to Harmonix and Mediatonic, Epic Games has been working to acquire other game development studios and game development tools over the last couple of years, including Rocket League developer Psyonix and the RAD Game Tools middleware set.
