Harmonix - Our games were carrying MTV brand, dropped support wasn't that scary

“I think there came a crossroads where it became apparent to them that they either needed to make a bigger investment in the game space or cut their losses. I think it became apparent that, in this day and age, you really need a big enough publishing organization to achieve economies of scale if you want to make it work and they didn’t really have that. They had us, but essentially our games had to carry the entire publishing infrastructure of MTV games which was not particularly efficient. And so I think they got this ‘in-or-out’ moment and made what, I think, is a reasonable call; it’s their call. From our perspective, I think we’re pretty aware that there’s a whole host of things that we could not have accomplished without them from a music licensing standpoint and just from a financial support standpoint. When they bought us we were a little developer and in collaboration with them we achieved a lot. So I think the parting of the ways was a reasonable business decision that they undertook for pretty clear reasons, but I think we have a deep appreciation for what they were able to bring to our business and what we were able to accomplish together. And now, I think we’re relieved and excited to be on our own again and sort of masters of our own destiny.” - Harmonix VP of Product Development Greg LoPiccolo

Mr. LoPiccolo also said that the actual departure of Harmonix from MTV wasn’t all that scary…

“I would have to say, it sort of wasn’t [scary]. Because we knew our own worth. And there was kind of a lot of optics and noise. I think one of the things we’ve demonstrated to the world at large and to ourselves is that we have a demonstrated ability to make good stuff. And I think we had a confidence that somebody would see that and have that perspective. And it worked out like really beautiful for us. We’re very happy with our relationship with Columbus Nova and they seem like they really understand what our worth is and are happy to give us the freedom to develop our business. So we couldn’t be more happy with how things turned out.”

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