Kotick Wishes Activision Had Bought Harmonix

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has revealed he wishes the publisher had purchased Rock Band developer Harmonix when they had the chance:

“When we were buying Guitar Hero and buying Red Octane, the makers of Guitar Hero, we knew about Harmonix. We had always known them as sort of a somewhat failed developer of music games. They always had really good ideas, but nothing that was really commercially viable until Guitar Hero and at first we thought, ‘okay, it’s a good piece of software, but if we gave it to Neversoft, they’re going to knock the ball out of the park with this.’"

“We really didn’t even think ‘hey, we should go to Boston and meet these Harmonix guys and see what they’re up to, and of course, had we gone, I think the world of Guitar Hero would have been rewritten and it would be a lot different today and probably a profitable opportunity for both of us and an opportunity where you’d have even more innovation in the category.”