Music game maker Harmonix confirmed that it laid off some employees today. The cuts are a midcourse correction for the company that brought us music games like Guitar Hero, Dance Central, and Rock Band.
A Harmonix spokesperson said, “We can confirm that a small number of Harmonix employees were let go today. This decision was made due to shifting staffing priorities for Harmonix’s multiple future projects.”
We hear that the Cambridge, Mass.-based company cut about 10 full-time employees and that the company continues to grow and hire based on specific projects under way. The company still has three major next-generation games in full-scale development. And it recently hired a new design director, Zak McClendon, who was the lead designer on BioShock 2.
Harmonix was founded in 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy. The company rode a rocket of popularity after the launch of Guitar Hero in 2005. That business grew to more than $1 billion a year for all of the companies in the market, but then the market for games with faux guitars crashed. More recently, the dance game craze has taken off, particularly on motion-sensing consoles.