Rock-and-Roll Fantasy

Ask them what's next and they'll calmly tell you they intend to foment a revolution in the music business. Just as MTV made people want to see, as well as hear, a new song, Rigopulos and Egozy aim to have consumers want to "play" a new song on their game. "People talk about music games as a new category of games," says Rigopulos, "but for me, music games are a new category of musical entertainment." Already the struggling music industry is benefiting. Forgotten heavy-metal hits like "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" are being embraced by a new generation of gamers.

After Rock Band began offering new songs online for $2 in December, it sold 6 million downloads in four months. Coming next: an entire album by the Who. (Pete Townshend's teenage son, a gamer, persuaded Dad to get with the times, says Rigopulos.) This month, Mötley Crüe became the first band to debut a single on Rock Band. Sure, they're 20 years past their prime, but it's a start. "Artists have approached us and said, 'I want to put out a Rock Band version of my new record the same day I drop it globally'," says MTV Networks president Van Toffler.

Egozy and Rigopulos didn't set out to save the music business. They just had a thing for rock and roll—and technology—and wanted to share it with nonmusicians. They met in a music-theory class as undergrads at MIT in the early 1990s, but didn't bond until studying computer music in graduate school, where their professor put them in an office together. "They had complementary skills," recalls Media Lab chief Tod Machover. "Eran is very social and brilliant at [computer] coding; Alex is a leader who is extremely calm and good at analyzing situations." The way they remember it, though, is that Egozy constantly tinkered with music programs, while Rigopulos whiled away hours playing Flight Simulator. Then one day, Rigopulos looked over and said, "Hey, Eran, we should hook this joystick onto your music program." The result: the Axe, a joystick music-improvisation game that became Harmonix's first product.

Like many Harmonix early efforts, the Axe was critically acclaimed but shunned by shoppers. In those lean first years, staff meetings were held in Rigopulos's bedroom at his parent's house, and he took power breakfasts at Cinnabon (where they still break bons together every May 10 to celebrate Harmonix's anniversary). Next came two rhythmic music games, Frequency and Amplitude, that presaged Guitar Hero by rewarding players with points for staying on the beat. Again reviewers raved, but buyers stayed away. Harmonix was in danger of becoming the Velvet Underground of the game business, critical darlings who couldn't pay their bills.

Then they got the call. Red Octane, a small company that made the dance mats for a hot new game called Dance Dance Revolution, had a proposition: would Harmonix create a guitar game if Red Octane supplied the plastic ax? Rigopulos and Egozy found the idea ridiculous. For starters, the silly toy guitar would drive up the price to $70—nearly twice the going rate for videogames. And a game that emulated dinosaur rockers seemed out of step with the times. "I remember thinking, 'Who even plays guitar anymore? Shouldn't we make a game with hip-hop?' " says Egozy. But given Harmonix's prospects, they decided to roll the dice. "It could only happen with these two small no-name companies," says Egozy. When the game first appeared in late 2005, it wasn't a hit. Then bars began replacing karaoke nights with Guitar Hero nights. Guitar teachers saw an increase in business. Old songs by Foghat and Blue Oyster Cult began moving on iTunes. Guitar World magazine started flying off newsstands.

After that came the cultural clincher: Detroit Tigers pitcher Joel Zumaya was sidelined during the 2006 American League playoffs with a sore wrist from playing too much Guitar Hero. "That's when we knew we had something," says Egozy. Harmonix included a tribute to its accidental endorser in the credits on its hit follow-up, Guitar Hero II: "No pitchers were harmed in the making of this game. Except for one. Joel Zumaya."