Rock Band looking for a home as parent company Viacom decides to pull out of the music game business...

It's been announced today that music game developer Harmonix is up for sale following a decision from parent company Viacom.

Harmonix, who are perhaps credited with popularising the music game genre after creating the original Guitar Hero name, develops the Rock Band series, which had up until now been published by MTV Games (though distributed by EA). It's believed that the franchise had become a big "money-losing unit" for Viacom, and keeping hold of the developer was perhaps no longer viable. Particularly low initial sales for the big-budget latest release Rock Band 3 was likely a deciding factor in the decision.

It's not yet known where the future lies for Harmonix, but a spokesperson for Viacom confirmed the company was in talks with several potential buyers. It's a possibility that Rock Band's distributor Electronic Arts could be the nearest and most obvious potential buyer for the studio. More radically, it was only last month that one analyst suggested rival publisher Activision should acquire the Rock Band name to cure its own flagging Guitar Hero franchise. What an odd coincidence it would be if that turned out to be the case.

Either way, the question is whether Harmonix can ever get its mojo back with Rock Band, especially now it's lost the clout of MTV, or whether the music game genre on the whole is just stuck in a rather more problematic rut.

We'll keep you informed on the future of Harmonix.