Boston: The Hidden Hub of Music and Technology

Harmonix
Headquarters: Cambridge, MA
Year Launched: 1995
CEO : Alex Rigopulos
CTO: Eran Egozy
Funding: Acquired in 2006 by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom

Few people could explain the relationship between the cult hit video game Guitar Hero and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But Harmonix, maker of Guitar Hero, is actually a spinoff of the MIT Media Lab, where founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Ergozy met while working in the computer music group. The pair’s first products included a Theremin-like device for Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center that allowed users to make music simply by waving their hands in the air. In 2001 and 2003 the company published Frequency and Amplitude, respectively, addictive “rhythm-action” games for the Sony Playstation. The company’s breakthrough hits, Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II, turn air-guitar experts into real players who must compete with the game to strum specified tunes on a special guitar-like game controller. Anticipation of the company’s next title, the networked multiplayer game Rock Band, is at a fever pitch. It’s designed for both the Playstation3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and is expected in time for the 2007 holidays.

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Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/