A few weeks ago, Destructoid posted word that Harmonix had licensed four hip hop and dance tracks “to be featured in video games”:
- “Ante Up” by M.O.P.
- “Evacuate the Dancefloor” by Cascada
- ”The Way I Are” by Timbaland feat. D.O.E.
- “Say Aah” by Trey Songz
I didn’t mention it at the time because these seemed unlikely to be used in any game I’d be covering here. But now RockBandAide brings word of a possibly related story: An artist by the name of Kaleo Futuristo, who appears to work in mostly R&B and hip hop, recently posted the following to his Twitter:
“Harmonix, the creators of The ROCKBAND Video Game is planning on using one of my tracks for their demo projects. AWESOME!!”
“Demo project.” Very interesting. Tommy at RockBandAide theorizes that we may be seeing a reboot of Harmonix’s underappreciated Frequency franchise, which would certainly be just fine by me. But I have another theory:
What if Harmonix is working on DJ Hero 2?
Far-fetched? Of course. But there’s been a lot of musing lately theorizing that the two big music-game franchises could be converging somehow. If Activision were to buy Harmonix or otherwise partner with the originators of Guitar Hero, it stands to reason they’d probably want them working on the sequel to DJ Hero, too.
Now, Freestyle Games, developers of the first DJ Hero, appear to be well into development of DJ Hero 2 themselves, if their job listings are any indication. But that wouldn’t prevent Harmonix from having a hand in it as well, making the big-picture calls and farming out the nuts-and-bolts development.
I’m not saying this is likely. I’m not even saying it’s remotely likely. I’m just saying it’s possible. And that I find it interesting that Harmonix appears to be dipping a toe into a new musical pool just as rumors start circulating of a Harmonix/Activision alliance. What do you think? Coincidence?
