In 2006, Harmonix was at the top of the food chain when Viacom purchased the company for a crazy $175 million dollars. This amount of money may have been considered small time considering how much money Rock Band would eventually earn for Viacom and Harmonix in the immediate future. However, now that Rock Band 3 has sold so poorly, Viacom and Harmonix are no longer on the good terms the two once were.

Harmonix has officially filed a lawsuit against Viacom reporting that the parent company “diverted opportunities” from the developer in order to avoid paying them hundreds of millions of dollars as per their agreement when the company was bought. It also alleges that Viacom did not pay the company its share of profits from 2008, which figures out to be quite a lump sum as well.

I can’t figure it out, but what is going on with the music genre in the gaming industry? It seems like every single time there is a major lawsuit (outside of Activision), it’s a recording artist bringing up a lawsuit against one of the bigger music genre developers in the business. Now, it’s the developer filing suit against its parent company. Don’t they realize these are video games? Mellow out guys and just enjoy the ride.

[Source]