Harmonix Music Systems
AUnnamedDragon
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Background
Established on May 10, 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. (doing business as Harmonix) is an American video game developer based in Boston, Massachusetts. When first formed, it was funded with about $100,000 and had nearly zero revenue over the first five years. It made musical products and was built on the premise that the experience of performing music could become accessible to those who would otherwise have trouble learning a traditional instrument.
Around 1999, the company moved to video game development, releasing its first game, FreQuency, in 2001. In 2004, RedOctane approached Harmonix about developing what would become Guitar Hero.
In September 2006, not long after Activision acquired RedOctane, Viacom acquired Harmonix for $175 million. Over the next four years, Harmonix created the Rock Band franchise and Dance Central for MTV Games.
In late December 2010, Viacom sold Harmonix to Harmonix-SBE Holdings LLC, a holding company for the family office of investor Jason Epstein. The company continued to release Rock Band and Dance Central games, as well as Fantasia: Music Evolved and most recently, Fuser.
In November 2021, the company was acquired by Epic Games.
1st Logo (November 4, 2010-October 16, 2012)
Visuals: Some blue and pink wavy lines appear on a black background. The lines wave up and down repeatedly over a purple bar with a white line in the center. A bluish-violet ball with white lights appears and zooms toward us as two swirling lines spin around it. The wavy lines and bar eventually flash and disappear, revealing the word
The ball serves as the "O" in the company name, while the rest of the letters are black with pinkish outlines. The ball pulses, turning dodger blue with a white outline and causing dodger blue rings that turn the rest of the name white, making it
Finally, the logo disappears with a television-switch off effect.
Technique: CGI.
Audio: Varies depending on the game:
- Dance Central: A disco-esque breakbeat that stops when the logo is formed. This is followed by a distorted, rather muffled robotic voice saying the company name and a TV-switch off sound.
- Dance Central 2: A different, more rave-like breakbeat that segues into the opening theme of the game, alongside some sound effects.
- Dance Central 3: A breakbeat similar to the Dance Central 2 variant.
Availability: Seen on Dance Central, Dance Central 2 and Dance Central 3.
2nd Logo (October 22, 2013)
Visuals: Some dodger blue rings appear on a black background and wipe in a cloudy background with the Harmonix logo on it. The ball pulses three times, each time releasing more dodger blue rings. The first two sets of rings wipe the background to two more cloudy backgrounds with different colors and styles, while the final set of rings wipes the background to black, leaving just the Harmonix logo.
Technique: A mix of 2D animation and CGI.
Audio: A electric guitar-led tune.
Availability: So far, seen on Fantasia: Music Evolved.
