Guitar Hero in 'capable hands' - Harmonix CEO

Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos says he believes Guitar Hero is in "capable hands" at Neversoft, and that "fans of the franchise will be happy with" the Tony Hawk developers attempts to follow in Harmonix' stead.

Although he admits it's "hard to say" how the Tony Hawk developer will get on with the series, he describes them as "really talented, capable game developers" in an interview published on our sister site GamesIndustry.biz.

"They don't have experience in the area of music games, so I think they'll have some challenges," he admits. "But they're really talented guys, and the franchise is in capable hands. And a lot of the hard design problems of Guitar Hero have been solved. I think those guys are capable of taking it and running with it in a way that fans of the franchise will be happy with."

Last year saw Harmonix bought out by MTV, while Guitar Hero publisher RedOctane, which owns the IP, was bought up by Activision. Despite what you might think though, Rigopulos is content with the split, saying of RedOctane: "they were coming to us as company that was basically the same size as us, and they were writing the cheques to finance the game. And betting the farm on the game. So I think they're rightfully the owner of that IP."

Despite the series' success in 2006 though, Harmonix' chief executive admits it was an uncomfortable time. "Because of what was happening with Guitar Hero, it was a very emotionally intense year," he says. "What was apparent was that our world was changing. After a decade of trying, music games were finally exploding in the US.

"That meant a number of parties were going to come into play, to try and stake out territory in that area. So it was actually a very tense, complicated year for us."

For more on Harmonix' situations and a few hints about the company's direction now it's part of MTV, check out the rest of the interview.