Alex Rigopulos, Co-Founder and CEO of Harmonix, presents a graph showing Harmonix's profits over the history of the company. Hmm, I wonder what happened in 2006?
More pics from the Guitar Hero maker's DICE speech updating live, after the jump.
On Frequency's sales: "I don't want to say what the actual sales numbers are, but maybe I should use the words of one of our board members, who said that Frequency sold 'mouse nuts.'"
Why Alex is looking forward to digital distribution: "I'm hopeful that this kind of experimental game that's hard to market will become more feasible to market. But on PlayStation 2, we gave Sony an impossible challenge."
Harmonix's Future (gently paraphrased)
It was an agonizing decision for us to make. GH was very close to our hearts and it was hard for us to let it go. But we have very big ideas about where to go next with the genre. New projects are big, gnarly,and challenging. Focusing our resources exclusively on big new projects.
Now that I've dragged you all the way through Harmonix's history I'd like to finish today by working my way back to the topic I opened with; this notion that Harmonix is living the dream.
For the first time, we no longer live in constant fear of imminent death. Now that we're part of a big company, with MTV's ocean of resources at our disposal we're able to swing for the fences in a way that wasn't conceivable for a small developer with limited resources. That does feel liberating.
What's been most remarkable for me is just how much hasn't changed. The phrase "living the dream" evokes images of decadent stardom, but the truth has been very different. In the four months following the acquisition I've been as stressed out about my work as any point in the last 12 years.
