Activision: "Nothing But Love" For Rock Band 3 Dev Harmonix, Not Ruling Out A Buy-Out

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Activision is running some pretty extensive PR damage control on what until a few years ago were some pretty huge franchises. A couple of its “seven pillars” if you will. The word of the day seems to be “relevant”, which Activision wants us to think its franchises still are, even though they haven’t gone to the trouble of actually making them that way for a while. And would the first step on the road to recovery be buying back the creators of Guitar Hero from Viacom?

“I can tell you I’ve got a ton of respect for Harmonix,” Activision’s ubiquitous Eric Hirshberg said. “They’re a hell of a developer, and very innovative, and I’ve got nothing but love for them.” Yes, but will you buy them? “It’s no secret that not just Guitar Hero, but also Rock Band, and the music category in general, do not have the same mass appeal today that they did a few years ago.” No secret at all (though some would disagree), but Harmonix could help you fix that, how about buying them? “I can’t comment on that.” Fiddlesticks.