Viacom Prepares to Dump Games Unit

November 13, 2010

Viacom revealed this week that it plans to sell its games business. The company said that it "lacked the expertise" to properly manage the games business. Expertise or no, the company's games division has been losing money hand over fist as of late, as interest in the music videogame sector loses the interest of gamers.

"Harmonix has and will continue to create terrific video games, but for us, it is about focus," CEO Philippe Dauman said.

"The console games business requires an expertise and scale that we don't have, so we have taken steps to sell Harmonix and we are in discussions with several potential buyers."

Where MTV Games and Harmonix end up is anyone's guess but it certainly would be a good fit for EA, who has been publishing Rock Band games for the entire life of the series.

Source: International Business Times

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Re: Viacom Prepares to Dump Games Unit

Submitted by ecco6t9 on Mon, 11/15/2010 - 18:03.

All this proves is that media companies have no business in the games industry, isn't this CBS/Viacoms third attempt?

 

I shudder to think how Midway is going to do under Warner, which owned Atari sold them, started Time Warner Interactive sold that, and now owns Midway.

Re: Viacom Prepares to Dump Games Unit

Submitted by lomdr on Mon, 11/15/2010 - 08:20.

 Then again, a lot of the blame on the internet goes to Activision for the downturn of the music gaming genre.  Okay, I admit that I partake in that blame.  I call this time last year as "The Hero Clusterfuck of '09".  If there wasn't really a clusterfuck, I'd have a feeling that DJ Hero would have done better, and that property is pretty unique.

 
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E. Zachary Knight: Microsoft talks about the lack of backward compatability. You're backwards. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/192801/If_youre_backwards_compatible_youre_really_backwards.php05/22/2013 - 1:39pm
E. Zachary Knight: That is absolutely nuts there. As bad an experience XBox Indie Games was, the problems weren't with the self published side of things. Forcing a publisher onto independent studios is not going to help.05/22/2013 - 10:43am
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Imautobot: I gotta admit, I seriously believed Microsoft was going to "Bring It" with this new console. But they failed, and I think that failure might be Epic.05/22/2013 - 7:27am
Andrew Eisen: Well, the Xbox One reveal certainly had an interesting affect on the big 3's stock prices. https://twitter.com/AndrewEisen/status/33705126448977100805/21/2013 - 10:45pm
PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/so-the-xbox-one-reveal-screwed-up-a-lot-of-peoples-kin-509179256 So The Xbox One Reveal Screwed With Some People's Kinects05/21/2013 - 10:36pm
Zen: On a funny side note...both of my boys have already voted NOT to get the Xbox One as soon as they found out Minecraft won't transfer lol. Some people have priorities damnit! ;)05/21/2013 - 9:27pm
Andrew Eisen: Here's the full quote on EA making Wii U games according to Neogaf: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56112105/21/2013 - 8:19pm
Andrew Eisen: Xbox One may not be always on but that doesn't mean you can use it without an internet connection. http://kotaku.com/xbox-one-does-require-internet-connection-cant-play-o-50916410905/21/2013 - 7:39pm
Andrew Eisen: Polygon says EA's CFO says it is developing games for Wii U but doesn't provide that quote. http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4351844/ea-developing-wii-u-games05/21/2013 - 7:11pm
Andrew Eisen: Well, I was right. Both Sony and Microsoft's consoles will be out by the year's end and both will be significantly more powerful than the current gen.05/21/2013 - 5:06pm
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Zen: Just to let ya know...you called it the "Xbox 260" in the backwards compatibility article lol.05/21/2013 - 4:26pm
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Zen: I noticed it with the football players when EA showed off Madden as well.05/21/2013 - 4:11pm
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