MTV buys its way into the digital music games market

To shore up its base as a multi-tiered provider of content to younger viewers and listeners, MTV Networks is making a play for the interactive music games business.

MTV, No. 184 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites, is acquiring Harmonix Music Systems Inc., developer of the PlayStation 2 Guitar Hero and other music gaming titles, for $175 million in cash. MTV will acquire all of Harmonix’s outstanding stock.

Harmonix is a video game development company based in Cambridge, MA. The company specializes in developing interactive music games and was launched in 1995 by co-founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, who met while working in the computer music group at the MIT Media Laboratory.

“The acquisition of Harmonix advances MTV Networks’ strategy of connecting with target audiences by creating immersive, multi-platform environments that extend to every device they use,” says MTV chairman and CEO Judy McGrath. “Harmonix is an innovator in giving audiences new and dynamic ways to interact with music.”