Harmonix and the Big Fat Bonus
N'Gai Croal mentioned today at Level Up that Brandon Boyer of Gamasutra had uncovered an interesting note in Viacom's latest earnings report:Media giant Viacom has its most recent yearly financial report, highlighting a possible $208.7 million in performance-based earnouts for developer Harmonix, following the success of Rock Band, published by Viacom subsidiary MTV Games.
... According to Viacom's latest statement, the acquisition included a clause that "to the extent financial results exceed specific contractual targets against a defined gross profit metric through 2008" -- that is, should Harmonix's sales exceed MTV's expectations -- "former Harmonix shareholders will be eligible for incremental earn-out payments with respect to the years ended December 31, 2007 and December 31, 2008."
As of December 31st of last year, the filing (originally reported by PaidContent) notes, Harmonix had $208 million set aside for them, with "a final payment with respect to the year ended December 31, 2008" expected to be given to the studio in 2009.
You know how much of a payout I hope those guys get? 208.7 million. I hope they get every penny they possibly could at the end of the year. Guitar Hero I and II and Rock Band have given me hundreds and hundreds of hours of total fun, and they've completely rekindled my interest in music. I hope those guys make so much money that they can insulate their offices with bundles of $100 dollar bills.
Oh, and by the way, could we get a little Bachman Turner Overdrive?
Wait--one other thing. I saw that someone's making a guitat training system for real guitar that resembles Guitar Hero. Why doesn't Harmonix work on something like that at some point? We totally trust these guys to do it right, they're all musicians, and it would be even more downloadable content for us to buy. If Harmonix made a PC program to teach real guitar, I'd be in on day one.
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