Guitar Hero in 'capable hands' - Harmonix CEO

By Tom Bramwell Published 14 February, 2007

New devs "really talented".

Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos says he believes Guitar Hero is in "capable hands" at Neversoft, and that "fans of the franchise will be happy with" the Tony Hawk developers attempts to follow in Harmonix' stead.

Although he admits it's "hard to say" how the Tony Hawk developer will get on with the series, he describes them as "really talented, capable game developers" in an interview published on our sister site GamesIndustry.biz.

"They don't have experience in the area of music games, so I think they'll have some challenges," he admits. "But they're really talented guys, and the franchise is in capable hands. And a lot of the hard design problems of Guitar Hero have been solved. I think those guys are capable of taking it and running with it in a way that fans of the franchise will be happy with."

Last year saw Harmonix bought out by MTV, while Guitar Hero publisher RedOctane, which owns the IP, was bought up by Activision. Despite what you might think though, Rigopulos is content with the split, saying of RedOctane: "they were coming to us as company that was basically the same size as us, and they were writing the cheques to finance the game. And betting the farm on the game. So I think they're rightfully the owner of that IP."

Despite the series' success in 2006 though, Harmonix' chief executive admits it was an uncomfortable time. "Because of what was happening with Guitar Hero, it was a very emotionally intense year," he says. "What was apparent was that our world was changing. After a decade of trying, music games were finally exploding in the US.

"That meant a number of parties were going to come into play, to try and stake out territory in that area. So it was actually a very tense, complicated year for us."

For more on Harmonix' situations and a few hints about the company's direction now it's part of MTV, check out the rest of the interview.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (8) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • AcidSnake #1 5 years ago

    For some the musician simulator is more fun...

    The second is a tad heavier than the first, but in co-op the second puts the first to shame...
    To each his own I guess...Although I'd hate to see different versions come out a la SingStar...
    Downloadable content FTW here!

  • Roarer #2 5 years ago

    Actually, I think Guitar Hero II IS more fun. The note patterns are much better, more involving and more logical. Hard mode is a nice balance between being fun and challenging.

    Though I'll admit that the tracklist is a lot worse in GHII (on the other hand, it is also more diverse, which is good. If only they'd cut some of those painfully bad and unfun songs [Psychobilly Freakout, Madhouse, Message in a Bottle etc)

  • myiagros #3 5 years ago

    I want the next in the series of Frequency and Amplitude.

    Guitar Hero is fun, but I would much rather play either of the other two.

  • Fyzzu #4 5 years ago

    I'm sure this'll be classed as whining by someone, but GH1 had better songs, while GH2 has a better system, and so the songs-from-the-first-game-as-DLC make me even more tempted to pick up GH2 on its eventual 360 release.

    I can't say I had any real issues with the note charts in GH2. I admit I've probably only experienced one quarter of the game, though (as I've played on nothing but Expert), so it's perfectly possible that Easy/Medium/Hard charts are stupid. I can't see too much wrong with them on Expert, though: there are one one or two areas where I actually felt it was totally off. Sometimes three-note chords seemed a bit random, as did a few other things (they occasionally felt over-the-top, frankly, but the new HOPO system made them easy enough to deal with) but overall it wasn't really anything I felt was worth bitching about.

    Haven't played GH1 a fair while. I did do obscenely well on Crossroads last time I played it, but right now I'm obsessed with 5-starring my final three songs on GH2 Expert (Misirlou, Jordan, Six). Well, okay, I'm obsessed with just plain *finishing* Jordan. I sincerely doubt I'll ever 5-star that one.

    EDIT - @Roarer: I love Psychobilly Freakout; it's completely insane. I fully agree on Message in a Bottle, though. And if the lack of Harmonix means there won't be any Made in Mexico songs, I'm all for it.
    Edited by 1 at 14/02/07 @ 15:52

  • OllyJ #5 5 years ago

    they need to make it free roaming.

  • AcidSnake #6 5 years ago

    You didn't like 'Message in a bottle'?

    Well...ok...I didn't see it as particularly bad or anything...

    Most of it comes down to taste I think, and GHII was a far better beast all together...

  • Triggerhappytel #7 5 years ago

    I will probably be in the vast minority here, but GH1 never really did it for me. I played the game first in Toys R Us and really enjoyed it, so I swiftly ordered it online as soon as I could. I played it a fair bit when I first got it (got to the third venue), but quickly left it and haven't been back in about three months now.

    I just don't feel compelled to play it anymore, and consequently the guitar and game are sitting beside my sofa undisturbed, gathering an impressive coating of dust. :(

  • Derblington #8 5 years ago

    Fyzzu - if they do the first game's tracks as DLC they will be exaclty the same I would have thought, not updated with the new mechanics.