Harmonix Launches Kickstarter for Amplitude on PS3 and PS4

[John Keefer]

Harmonix Launches Kickstarter for Amplitude on PS3 and PS4

The developer is working with Sony to bring the popular rhythm and music game for PlayStation 2 to the current PlayStation 3 and next-gen PlayStation 4.

Amplitude was an incredible music game from Harmonix when it was launched in 2003. Now, more than 10 years later, the developer want to bring the game to a new generation of players -- and consoles.

Harmonix just launched a Kickstarter [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/amplitude/131105520] to raise $775,000 to bring the PS2 classic to the PS3 and PS4. Most of the original Amplitude development team is still with the company and will spearhead the conversion, looking to update the soundtrack, visuals and controls. The goal is to also incorporate the same difficulty that made the original so maddeningly enjoyable. Think Dark Souls hard.

The goal isn't to make this a sequel but more of an Amplitude HD that stays faithful to the original, Harmonix said:


The game, as designed for this Kickstarter, focuses on the core Amplitude experience. Single player and local multiplayer are included in the design, as are leaderboards for online bragging rights. The Beat Blaster (the ship), music notes, tracks and FX will all be modernized and gorgeous. The cyberworld around the tracks will be designed by artists and crafted by coders so that every pixel on screen can be driven by the underlying music. Even as we work through our plans for this Kickstarter, the game is beginning to take shape - an HD re-envisioning of the cult classic, smartly updated for today on every axis. We believe this is the game that fans of Amplitude have been asking for and a game that can only come from Harmonix.


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The donation tiers range from $10 to $10,000. Starting at the $3,000 level, benefactors can get a trip to Harmonix for beta testing and and design meetings.

Check out the Kickstarter [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/amplitude/131105520] page for more details and all the benefits of donating to the cause. It's only running for 18 days, which is a bit shorter than some campaigns, so you'll need to make up your mind on donating a bit quicker than usual. Hint: Do it!

[kickstarter=harmonix/amplitude]


Permalink

 

[Andy Shandy]

So it's Sony's IP, hence the exclusive to PS3 and PS4. But Sony isn't going to fund it. And neither will Harmonix, the company that had a multi-million dollar payout from Viacom last year, and has had various venture capitalists/angel investors down the years. So they need 3 quarters of a million for a game that's only going to be on two consoles, because neither group will fund it themselves.

Good luck, Harmonix. I think you'll need it.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Harmonix... the company that made billions when opening the floodgates to music games until people couldn't take it any more.

And now that they have a new contract with Sony they want fans to finance their latest game... are you completely bloody mad?

 

[CriticalMiss]

It must be hard times at Sony and Harmonix if they don't have $775k to spare between them for an exclusive title that's a port of a PS2 game.

 

[Something Amyss]

So it's Sony's IP, hence the exclusive to PS3 and PS4. But Sony isn't going to fund it. And neither will Harmonix, the company that had a multi-million dollar payout from Viacom last year, and has had various venture capitalists/angel investors down the years. So they need 3 quarters of a million for a game that's only going to be on two consoles, because neither group will fund it themselves.

Good luck, Harmonix. I think you'll need it.

And it's a remake. And it's in a niche genre. And it's apparently super hard. In a niche genre.

Good Lord, this seems like a bad idea.

 

[Ipsen]

About a quarter off a million $ goal, to port a PS2 game to PS3/4?

You couldn't, you know, convince Sony to get this on PS2 Classics?

This is AAA industry, folks. Even a Kickstarter, near as grass-roots as you can get while being relatively ubiquitous, requires monumental effort to even consider workable.

And I thought at least half the point of Kickstarter was to get away from publisher deals?

 

[Arqus_Zed]

I liked FreQuency and Amplitude - and I wouldn't mind being taken back to a time when rhythm games weren't all about the peripherals. Plus, the multiplayer was awesome (and you wouldn't need a multi-tap this time around).

However, I'm gonna side with everyone else who has already commented on the topic and say this this really doesn't need to be on Kickstarter. Seriously Harmonix, you're a full-fledged game development studio, you don't need to be "kickstarted".

 

[thor23]

Harmonix... the company that made billions when opening the floodgates to music games until people couldn't take it any more.

And now that they have a new contract with Sony they want fans to finance their latest game... are you completely bloody mad?

Not Harmonix, Activision - i.e. the company that's known for sequelizing games to death. When it was just Harmonix and Red Octane, they were putting out one game a year. If they could have continued that pace, they may still be making Guitar Hero games today, who knows.

That being said, Amplitude was one of the few games I had for my PS2, so I am pretty thrilled to see them remaking it for the current gen.

 

[Chatboy 91]

There's a version that comes with limited edition vinyl... I might have to throw some money at this.

 

[Ne1butme]

I think i'd rather buy the original games on PSN. But i bet there is some big music license issues that is preventing the reissue.

 

[Amaror]

Ok that's pretty bullshit right there. If they said they wanted to develop it for all platforms i would get it, but with PS exclusivity they are clearly not completely independent.
Well, not like the first time a publisher tried this.
I think back in the day i heard that a publisher, i think ea, approached Obsidian and asked them to make a kickstarted game for them were they don't get any money form the publisher, but the game will still be owned by them.

 

[T_ConX]

That's it. Kickstarter has officially jumped the shark-tank for me. It made sense when we were funding tiny, newly-created studios headed by veteran PC-centrist developers who wanted to make the kind of niche titles we loved in the 90s.

This is a company that has spent the last decade making millions from yearly iterations of three different music game franchises (Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Dance Central), and now they're asking people to fund their new game because neither them nor the corporate overlords at Sony want to. It's almost like major publishers are trying to turn Kickstarter into some glorified pre-order system.

Hire beta testers? FUCK THAT! We'll just let people pay $3000 for the privilege of beta-testing our game.

I don't think I've wanted to see a Kickstarter fail so much since 'Pay me to make Youtube Videos' from two years ago.

 

[Peachio Deleon]

I think everyone has missed the point of the Kickstarter project. There are fans willing to back this game up and if you don't believe me, just look at the page yourself. Are you forgetting that the team actually needs to earn a decent living in the process of creating these games? They work hard. I'm not sure why anyone would say they would want this project to fail.

True fans of the game understand how the games and company have evolved. Fans pretty much knew after Guitar Hero and Rockband that the possibility of another controller based game was unlikely. For us, this is a miracle in the world of gaming. A glimmer of hope. I think if you're not going to back the project, just stay out of the way and let people who actually care about the project support it and don't pretend to know what we feel or want. You have no idea!