Harmonix Rebounds With Dance Central, Bets on Music Downloads
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When Harmonix unveiled its Dance Central video game at the industry conference E3 in June 2010, the once-mighty music games company was perched on a financial precipice. Sales of the interactive music game Rock Band, once the company’s golden goose, had started plummeting the previous year.
Viacom (VIA), which purchased Harmonix in 2006 for $175 million, was trying to find a buyer for the company and its $200 million in liabilities. Harmonix Chief Operating Officer Florian Hunziker watched the E3 announcement with head bowed and fingers crossed, worried whether Dance Central would appeal to the hundreds of attendees.