The well known Rock Band, Drop Mix, and original Guitar Hero creators, Harmonix, join the developers of South Korean studio NCSOFT to develop a new software-based game. The teams will apply their knowledge of rhythm challenges and Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) games to build a new software-based title for PC and consoles.
NCSOFT’s expertise in the online Role-Playing Game (RPG) market is extensive, including the classic City of Heroes, Guild Wars, and WildStar franchises. However, President Dr. Songyee Yoon explains, ‘this partnership is representative of NCSOFT’s ambition to reach beyond the PC and mobile MMORPG space with new and innovative titles’. It seems the business is looking forward at audience behaviour and the games industry, aiming to build a new innovative hit. With Harmonix at hand and ‘decades of expertise at the intersection of music licensing and video game development ‘, will this new project shake the industry like the original Guitar Hero did?
In remarkably premature stages of development, details about the project will become available in the future. As of now, NCSOFT holds the role of publishing and Harmonix working on the development of the game.
Combining forces, the two may have what it takes to surprise players around the world. Harmonix CEO Steve Janiak expresses they’re ‘thrilled to team up with NCSOFT ‘ sharing a common ‘vision for the evolution of entertainment, and what it takes to build a community on modern gaming platforms’. Janiak notes the project will rely on NCSOFT’s ‘incredible publishing expertise’ to allow the American partner to fully focus on the ‘next genre-defining music experience’ and a ‘one-of-a-kind game‘.
Virtual Reality (VR) sleeper-hit Beat Saber could be causing a resurgence of the rhythm-beat genre. The title is one of the highest selling PC VR games available right now, with addictive and groovy gameplay, fitting the new technology perfectly. Maybe Harmonix and NCSOFT have something similar up their sleeves?
The partnership with Harmonix is part of NCSOFT’s current strategy to grow within digital entertainment. A$19.7 million (22 billion Korean Won) investment in VFX studio ‘4th Creative Party’ (Okja, Snowpiercer) and other third-party game developers display their aggressive expansion plan.
The clock is all that is keeping this mystery project away from our grubby gaming peripherals.
