Being a rockstar isn’t cheap.
Game developer Harmonix has raised $15 million in equity funding, according to the Boston Business Journal. It had 14 undisclosed investors. This comes right before Harmonix releases Rock Band 4 on October 6 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Harmonix told GamesBeat that it’ll reveal info on where the funding is going in the coming weeks.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1799682,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,","session":"A"}']Harmonix is best known for creating the Guitar Hero series in 2005, which let people play songs on a guitar controller. In 2007, it released Rock Band, which also featured drums, bass, and vocals. The series has been on hiatus since 2010’s Rock Band 3, but Rock Band 4 will revive the brand. Guitar Hero, which also hasn’t had a new game since 2010, is also returning this holiday, via Guitar Hero Live on October 20.
The developer is also planning to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Fig. While that could help them get the money for the new game, some might question why it’s needed after this gain in equity funding.
Harmonix is also working on a new entry in its Amplitude series, another music-based game that it’s reviving thanks to Kickstarter. Last year, it released Fantasia: Music Evolved, a rhythm game that unfortunately bet big on the Xbox One’s Kinect motion-sensing camera right when consumers and even Microsoft were turning their backs on the device. The company suffered layoffs in May 2014.