Zak McClendon, the lead designer for 2010’s BioShock 2 and former employee at Crystal Dynamics, 2K Games, and Cinemaware, has a new home. According to everyone’s favorite video game-news generator, professional networking site LinkedIn, the former first-person shooter developer will now be working at Harmonix Music Systems as a design director.
It’s an exciting turn of events that Twitter user Superannuation discovered this morning. But, what does this mean? As of now, it’s a bit difficult to tell. Harmonix has been successful over the course of this generation due to innovative, effective music games, but as we all know, the team’s magic couldn’t last forever. As of April 2, the flow of new music ended for the Rock Band franchise and not long after, the conclusion of monthly DLC for Dance Central 3 became official. Rhythm-based games just aren’t what they used to be, and the acquisition of McClendon may be a sign that Harmonix is moving on in a new direction.
Venture capitalist Brad Feld recently backed the studio after witnessing Harmonix co-founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy’s three latest projects. Feld claimed that he was blown away by what he saw, and remains excited by the games.
All of these projects are likely stories we won’t hear until E3 finally rolls around in June. With the PlayStation 4 just recently announced and Microsoft’s next-generation machine, currently codenamed “Durango,” still under wraps, we’ll have to wait just a bit longer before all of these interesting pieces form a clear, distinguishable picture.
