Harmonix Music Systems

Boston, MA Gaming Acquired

Harmonix Music Systems is a Boston-based video game developer founded in 1995 by MIT Media Lab alumni Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy. The studio pioneered the music-rhythm video game genre, creating the original Guitar Hero (2005), the Rock Band franchise (2007-present), Dance Central, Amplitude, FreQuency, Fuser, and a range of music-driven experiences. Harmonix was acquired by Viacom/MTV Networks in 2006 for $175 million, sold to investor Jason Epstein's holding company in 2010, and acquired by Epic Games in November 2021 to build musical journeys and gameplay for Fortnite. Since the Epic acquisition, Harmonix has led the development of Fortnite Festival, a rhythm gameplay mode launched in December 2023.

Acquired

Harmonix Music Systems has been acquired

Acquired by Viacom (MTV Networks) September 21, 2006 $175M

This company is no longer available on our private secondary market.

Overview

Company data and valuation marks are estimates and may be incomplete, stale, erroneous, or revised.

Founded

1995

Employees

100–250

Funding

Funding data and valuation marks are estimates and may be incomplete, stale, erroneous, or revised.

Last updated 06-25-2026

Latest Round

Type

Series B

Date

December 10, 2015

Amount

Not disclosed

Valuation

Lead Investors

Not disclosed
DateRoundAmount RaisedValuationLead Investors
December 10, 2015 Series B Not disclosed Not disclosed
September 4, 2015 Series A Not disclosed Spark Capital

Leadership

  • Steve Janiak

    Chief Executive Officer

  • Alex Rigopulos

    Co-Founder

  • Eran Egozy

    Co-Founder

Competitors

Competitor list is illustrative and may be incomplete, stale, or erroneous.

  • Beat Games

    Czech studio behind Beat Saber, the leading VR rhythm game; acquired by Meta in 2019.

  • Activision (Guitar Hero)

    Publisher that ran the post-Harmonix Guitar Hero franchise via Neversoft and FreeStyleGames; now part of Microsoft.

  • Konami

    Japanese publisher of Dance Dance Revolution and BeatMania, the original arcade rhythm-game franchises.

  • Roblox

    User-generated metaverse platform that competes with Fortnite (Harmonix's parent) for music-driven interactive experiences and concerts.

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