In an announcement that I must admit comes as quite a surprise, Epic Games has now acquired Harmonix - the studio behind musical games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Given their expertise, I'm sure it'll come as a massive surprise to hear that Harmonix will be tasked with developing music-focused gameplay experiences for Fortnite and the whole Metaverse Epic is currently in the process of building.

“Music is already bringing millions of people together in Fortnite, from our emotes to global concerts and events,” explained Alain Tascan, Vice President of Game Development at Epic Games. “Together with the Harmonix team we will transform how players experience music, going from passive listeners to active participants.”

What exactly that last part means, I'm afraid I have no idea, but it's certainly an interesting thought. Transforming a standard concert into something even more active could definitely be fun, especially in the context of a fast-paced game like Fortnite. So even if you're not a massive fan of Fortnite, I think it'll be well worth keeping an eye on it just to see what Harmonix will manage to achieve.

As for their current projects, according to the brief FAQ over at the Harmonix website it seems like all of them will continue exactly as before. In other words, you can expect to see more Rock Band DLCs and Fuser events, while all of Harmonix's games that are currently available on Steam and consoles will continue to exist as if nothing changed.

You can read a little bit more about the whole acquisition, as well as keep an eye on Harmonix's efforts moving forward, over at the Epic Games website.