Harmonix CEO: VR is a Big Focus for the Studio Moving Forward - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 October 2015 / 2,964 Views
Harmonix's next title, Rock Band 4 releases on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 next week, however Harmonix CEO Steve Janiak has told VentureBeat that the team is going to focus on virtual reality going forwards.
"VR is a big focus for the studio moving forward," said Janiak. "It’s incredibly expensive to make video games. Building for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 is a lot more expensive than it was building for the original Xbox or PlayStation 2. Having funding on hand to invest in emerging platforms where we can be innovative is important. We don’t need the pressure of having it be an immediate hit. That’s why we do fundraising."
Harmonix recently raised $15 million in equity funding, which is quite unusual for a company that formed two decades ago. The developer is currently working on a title for the Oculus Rift, a music visualizer for PlayStation VR, and Beat Sports for Apple TV, as well as Rock Band 4.
"It’s unusual to have so much interest from venture capitalists for a company that is more than 20 years old," Janiak said. "We’re basically reinventing the company. We feel like a startup. We have a bunch of small teams that come up with a bunch of projects that we decide to fund. Some are much bigger things like the VR work that will come out next year."
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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
