Viacom is making good on its claims that former stockholders of Rock Band developer Harmonix owe it money, filing a lawsuit Friday to the tune of $131 million.
Specifically, the company is seeking over $131M of the nearly $150M it paid to Harmonix shareholders in anticipation of 2007 earn-outs, claiming that the sum is a "refund" for earn-out bonuses paid to shareholders "to which they are not entitled."
According to Viacom, the approximately $150M payment was determined by "preliminary calculation" for performance-based payments, which it says were miscalculated: allegedly, it has since determined that the actual earn-out payment due to Harmonix was actually just $18 million, and is seeking to have the remaining balance returned.
While Viacom says it paid too much, the former shareholders say they weren't paid enough, and filed their own suit against Viacom last year, which accused the then-current parent company of trying to scheme its way out of paying performance-based bonuses by manipulating costs.
The dispute has been under review by a resolution accountant since December, but has not yet been resolved.
Viacom offloaded Harmonix on the cheap early this year, which earned the company a major tax benefit of approximately $115 million dollars.
For more information on the history of Viacom's Harmonix acquisition and the previously filed lawsuit, refer to Gamasutra's extensive report.
"to the TUNE of $131 million." <--- I see what you did there
But seriously... seriously? Geez... sorry you messed up! That's quite a hefty sum to "miscalculate," and it's probably a bit late now to easily repair (and repay) the giant mess that has ensued. This is just some more corporate BS which sounds like a lot of finger-pointing "wellll, we expected to make so much more money and didn't realize how much it costs to make games, license music, and market things." Sadly, this is hardly trivial, and the last couple of years bureaucratic blunders like this have closed down more than a few fairly significant studios. What's that someone said recently, "be careful not to make too much money..."
That $131 million could have gone towards developing Rock Band 2/3 into proper sequels, and not just expansion packs. This is really disappointing to hear.
Maybe RB2, but RB3 added several new features, and was one of the best reviewed games of the year! Perhaps they were not innovative enough for you, but I'm much happier being able to transfer my song content from game to game for parties. Maintaining backwards compatibility limits innovation. Given those constraints, RB3 was a success, at least creatively.
Didn't the "Rock Band Network" launch with Rock Band 2? Along with the "no fail" mode? Rock Band 2 always felt like a significant and forward-thinking leap forward to me.
The Rock Band Network is wasted effort. They should have spent the money developing auto charting algorithms ala Vib Ribbon style instead of licensing popular songs. for them its a success, but for the genre of rhythm games its a massive creative white space that they tried to fill with the premature baby-pro mode.
That's a very bold and interesting thing for you to say! I don't know how much money was spent into bringing licensed content onto the Rock Band Network, but I can guarantee you that "Auto-Charting" is a lot easier said than done! We need only look to the overcharting and undercharting that already happened in many, many Guitar Hero songs to know that not all charts are equal, and that properly charting a game is probably more complicated than being able to play it.
I personally enjoy Pro Guitar, Pro Keys, and Pro Drums myself, so I'd actually be even more interested in hearing what exactly you mean when you say Rock Band 3 has "baby-pro" mode. I've never even come close to expert in any of those instruments, but is it the case that a talented, highly capable musician might find pro-mode to be less than the full experience? I'm happy with the fact that Rock Band comes out almost never, and that their efforts go into bringing new content onto a platform. I mean, the counterexample is Guitar Hero, which pretty obviously was a long serious of expansion packs.
Then again, I'm not you! I have no idea where you're coming from. I hope you have more to say.
@ Jonathan - a pro guitar, keys and drums player... nice. You would probably be familiar with the drums freestyle mode then? Its that little feature they threw into RB1&2 but never really developed. Thats the only improvisational aspect of Rock Band aside from Drum fill sections, and its a small part of the whole experience. Theres no freestyle guitar, which is unreal considering they've upgraded to Midi guitars already. At least with Rock Smith you'll be able to use your guitar as an in game amplifier. Then theres the issue of hi hats (which should have been a feature from launch), and the hardware delay of the squire.
I didn't expect them to get it perfect, but they really need to rethink whether they want their players to be parrots or musicians.
"Auto-Charting Algorithms" would probably have translated into an unbelievable nightmare of epic proportions. Note tracking (and hand-picking particular songs to guarantee a better experience) is much more sensible method for these types of casual-accessible games.
Otherwise, shouldn't all game development steer toward algorithmically-designed and arted content? Maybe in some decades from now, but really overall you just cannot replace that human touch; the difference is night and day. Not to take away from a game like Vib Ribbon, but there's a world of difference between a little gimmicky game and a full-fledged AAA experience.. it just makes zero sense to realistically believe otherwise, if you understand what goes into creating such games.
You're right, auto charting is still crap, but maybe thats because no company has invested $100 million in making it good. Wouldn't owning a patent on such technology pay itself off in the long run?
But seriously... seriously? Geez... sorry you messed up! That's quite a hefty sum to "miscalculate," and it's probably a bit late now to easily repair (and repay) the giant mess that has ensued. This is just some more corporate BS which sounds like a lot of finger-pointing "wellll, we expected to make so much more money and didn't realize how much it costs to make games, license music, and market things." Sadly, this is hardly trivial, and the last couple of years bureaucratic blunders like this have closed down more than a few fairly significant studios. What's that someone said recently, "be careful not to make too much money..."
I personally enjoy Pro Guitar, Pro Keys, and Pro Drums myself, so I'd actually be even more interested in hearing what exactly you mean when you say Rock Band 3 has "baby-pro" mode. I've never even come close to expert in any of those instruments, but is it the case that a talented, highly capable musician might find pro-mode to be less than the full experience? I'm happy with the fact that Rock Band comes out almost never, and that their efforts go into bringing new content onto a platform. I mean, the counterexample is Guitar Hero, which pretty obviously was a long serious of expansion packs.
Then again, I'm not you! I have no idea where you're coming from. I hope you have more to say.
I didn't expect them to get it perfect, but they really need to rethink whether they want their players to be parrots or musicians.
Otherwise, shouldn't all game development steer toward algorithmically-designed and arted content? Maybe in some decades from now, but really overall you just cannot replace that human touch; the difference is night and day. Not to take away from a game like Vib Ribbon, but there's a world of difference between a little gimmicky game and a full-fledged AAA experience.. it just makes zero sense to realistically believe otherwise, if you understand what goes into creating such games.