Theyd earn more if they released it in the UK!!

/angry face

hopefully a portion of this money goes where it should: in the pockets of the people who actually made the game.

yay... now make a world tour online mode patch dammit..

I thought the popularity of Guitar Hero had eclipsed Rock Band. It's nice to see there's still justice in the game industry.

Congrats to them. They deserve it.

Hot damn.

This might be a stupid question, but Harmonix isn't that big of a company, right? Maybe a few dozen people? So, uh, what are they going to do with all that money? Fill a swimming pool with Susan B. Anthony coins all Scrooge McDuck-style, only to realize that diving head first into a pool of coins is a great way to break your neck?

All i want is an expansion with the keytar.

I MUST PLAY EUROPES FINAL COUNT DOWN NOW!!!

@rmeehan17: Considering this bonus is going directly to Harmonix, I'm guessing all of it will end up in the pockets of the people who made the game.

@ArmyofJuan JuanSebastiann (XBL) ArmyofJuann (PSN): Keytar is needed.

I am still amazed that this game is so popular. I think when they have Hip-Hop Hero I would be more inclined to get into these rhythm games.

It's great to see Harmonix rewarded for making the best rhythm game ever, and let's hope a good chunk of this money is reinvested so we'll be seeing yet more awesome games from them!

I'm still waiting for them to release Hysteria as a DLC!

Not even going to comment. Don't want to get all angry over the whole guitar thing on the PS3.

Oh wait. God damnit. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Glad to hear, they certainly deserve it.

@jackal888: Guitar Hero already is Keytar, when you think about it. Especially now that we're playing keyboard parts in Killers' songs.

This is a well earned bonus. Harmonix are one of my all time favourite developers and they have yet to make a bad game in my opinion. Even their iPod game "Phase" is kick-ass. An iPod game, that's kick-ass.

(Note: I kinda wish I could play Rock Band, seeing as it's my favourite game of all time, but my 360 bit the dust. It bit the dust...while playing Rock Band. And then it worked again for a couple days, until it bit the dust again...while playing Guitar Hero 3. This time permanently.)

I'd love to be a Harmonix employee right about now.

Now just think of all the extra millions Rock Band could make on the Wii... that's right... now make it so! Please?

"I think when they have Hip-Hop Hero I would be more inclined to get into these rhythm games."

Yeah, I can't wait to hear the songs in Hip-Hop Hero. Let's see, most will go: "Uh, Ah, Yeah, Uhh, Ahh, Yeahh, N***a, N****". Really catchy stuff.

@kylenalepa - I think last article I read said around ~250. I think.

This is great encouragement that Rock Band will continue to deliver, as diluted GH begins a descent into hasbeenness.

Can they please at least release a heavier duty bass pedal?

Hell at this point I'd pay for it.

@Saxboy: A single downloadable song in Rock Band is around 30mb. It will be hell trying to manage your downloads on the Wii's pathetic internal memory.

Cool, now that you have all that money could you start uploading more (diverse, and better) songs instead of the standard 3 a week?

@kylenalepa: Good point, actually. Harmonix can't have more than a hundred employees. 208.7 million means nearly 100 thousand dollars apiece. Either they're all very, very happy right now or that money is going somewhere else within the studio somehow.

@Stormrider: rofl. You know the employees aren't going to be seeing that money.

Now it's time for them to work on Keyboard Hero.

@Stormrider: I think you're math is off. $208.7M split 100 ways is a little over $2M per person. That's a lot of meatballs.

with all the new cash, what the should do is get that Wii Version out PRONTO...

Good for them. Somehow, Vivendi must be LOSING lots of money on Rock Band. Even with all the DLC purchases, the numbers don't add up. Looks like they are investing in the future.

Btw, had a hardcore session of Rock Band Saturday night, completely with groupies (girlfriends). Guitar Hero guitar still blows away Rock Band so they definitely need to fix their guitar gameplay so it is more finely tuned.

@Stormrider: What math are you using here? If it was split equally between 100 employees, that'd be: $2,087,000 each.

europe release!!! milliiiiiiions of minions waiting here!!

@mywhitenoise:

6 Grateful Dead songs coming out this week, and Nirvana's Nevermind is likely near complete, and I'm betting will see a release this month.

@PownerOfNewbs: How is GH3 more finally tuned that Rock Band?

The guitars themselves? Sure, I'll agree with that to an extent, but how anyone can think GH3 is better than RB just because it's "harder", is beyond me.

Ah, here's some actual information on "who gets the money":

[query.nytimes.com]

Way at the bottom, it mentions that investors who owned Harmonix (most likely private owners, including the founders and some Venture Capital firms) would get additional payment based on performance.

So employees would only get money if they were paid in stock options before the buyout.

Of course, given the success of the game, I'm sure a lot of the folks there are a hell of a lot better off than they would be if they were only relying on their band income.

This article, and the Gamasutra one it is based of, is wrong. Harmonix STOCKHOLDERS will receive $209 million IF sales forecast are met and surpased come December 31st 2008 AND the bonus will be given on 2009.

The money has been "set aside" in case the pay-out is made. They have NOT received $209 million right now. Shareholders and Harmonix MIGHT get the $209 million come january 2009.

@CyN1caL: Agreed. GH3 is harder, true. But that doesn't mean Rock Band is any less competitive. It's just that when playing ranked guitar duels in RB, you better damn well 100% the song if you're going to win.

Also, Green Grass and High Tides is harder than anything in any Guitar Hero game save Slayer and Dragonforce.

Hopefully that money goes where it belongs, into Muse's pockets for the rights to all their albums.

@Dumari: "The Destroyer" or "The Omega", perhaps?

(Disclaimer: I have no actual information about the above products, other than what is posted in the ScoreHero forums. I made my own bass pedal with a switch and a block of wood)

In any case, here's to hoping that everyone at Harmonix gets a big, fat bonus check, and then the rest of the money goes to licensing more tracks. (Okay, *maybe* some re-engineering of the instruments, too :))

I've played rock bad once, and I felt that it was way easier than GH, and the 4 times I missed a note, I felt that it was because of the guitar, and not my playing. It was actually pretty frustrating to be breezing through a song (where I normally get destroyed on GH on medium) and think I hit the note fine, only to have it not register.

@dowingba: USB Harddrives and SD Flash cards would work perfectly, and shouldn't be too hard to implement I wouldn't think.

@CyN1caL: The Guitar Hero guitar is MUCH more accurate & responsive. There is no doubt about it. I like the style & size of the Rock Band guitar, but at the end of the day, its a video game, and you want the peripheral that best does what you want it to.

@Saxboy: Shouldn't be too hard. But we're relying on Nintendo to do something pro-active here. So I expect ...it will be too hard.

@CyN1caL: Is GH3 harder than RB? I've only played the demo, but it felt like the timing was so loose you could drive a truck through it. If "The Metal" was using GH2/RB's system, it would have been a challenge, but in GH3, button mashing was enough to 100% the main riff.

Feels like GH3's motto is "everyone a shredder." It certainly looks more impressive, but seems to be aiming at casual players. Frankly, I think GH2/RB is already too lax with the timing, so this turned me off from GH3.

Rock Band is a lot more fun than Guitar Hero now, in my opinion. Mainly Rock Band works better at parties when you can have the Guitar Hero people on Guitar cranking it up to expert (Green Grass and High Tides is freakin' hard) and then other people go on to the other instruments on whatever difficulty they want. Then Rock Band works well when you have friends to play with on a regular basis because you see how everyone gets better. Its more about the group doing well than about the indivuidal. Guitar Hero is fine for playing by yourself, but Rock Band makes you work together as a "Band" hence, Rock Band. Main complaint about Rock Band...all the Fender Guitar models look the same! Also, I have yet to break the Fender Guitar which I find I prefer mainly because its easier on the hands with the longer neck.

@celery: wasn't he GH2 timing a lot tighter than the original GH timing. I'll agree about the timing in GH3 making parts feel to easy, but the timing on RB feels about right. Provided the delay is setup correctly.

@trogam: Each Guitar Hero game has gotten "looser" than the last in timing. I find that it's a good thing. Every time they loosen the timing in a Guitar Hero game, it feels more and more like playing a real guitar. Here's a secret guitar players all know: Guitar Hero is a fuck of alot harder than playing real guitar, because you have to follow something with perfect timing, instead of play it yourself on a real instrument. It makes a big difference.

I'm not sure how anyone could 100% anything in GH3 by "button mashing" though.

@trogam: The timing window on GH2 is ever-so-slightly looser than GH1, it was the change to how the hammer-ons worked that made that particular engine gold. RB's timing is quite similar, I'd say maybe just like GH2 or in between GH2 and GH1. GH3's is laughable. They opened up the timing window so people would have an easier time with the near-impossible songs they picked.

There's no real debate about GH3 being harder than Rock Band but that doesn't make it better.

I own both games and as much as I loved GH3 I just don't play it anymore. It seemed that Activision decided to best way to improve the game was to just make it unreasonably difficult and completely disregard the actual music. I guess what I'm saying is that if you never wondered why Slipknot (GH3) was hard than Hendrix (GH1) than you're GH3's target audience.

Rock Band is easier but at least, for the most part, it sticks to the music. As you see DLC pile up (as it already has) you'll see that difficulty continue skyrocket.

Also it should be worth noting that once you get RB chances are you'll leave the guitars up to your friends and demand full ownership of the drums.

@celery: Turn precision mode on. Good luck :)

@trogam: I'm not sure about the strum timing, but the GH2 HOPO system was a lot more forgiving than GH. HOPOs in GH2 could be performed at strum timing, while in GH, the window was something like 1/4th that of the strum window, I think? That and the fact that POs no longer needed to be actual POs, of course. That (for me at least) overshadowed any change in the strum timing.

@dowingba: Well, I'm not sure if loosening the timing is good or bad. I agree it's more fun initially (when I was playing the GH3 demo, I just kept thinking "man I'm awesome, I hope someone is watching") but it kinda takes away from GH as a "serious" rhythm game. Who knows if the world needs another serious business rhythm game, but that's what I look for.

And yeah, "button mashing" might be too strong of a statement, but some of my HOPOs in GH3 were at least 2 notes late, and the game still gave me full credit for them. And I'm sure some extra frets found their way in without breaking combo, though I think that applies to GH2/RB HOPOs too.

@suburbancowboy: Today is your lucky day! I've got some advice for you: bump up the difficulty! If you get destroyed on medium in GH then you aren't very good meaning that you aren't very good on hard or expert in RB.

@Chucklestyle: I remember the developers of RB saying they used the same timing as from GH2. Who knows if it's true, but it feels c