All Articles: Amplitude

Things were looking awfully dire, but Harmonix’s Amplitude reboot has reached its funding goal after impassioned pleas (and pledges to match) from Insomniac, Markus “Notch” Persson, Jerry “Tycho” Holkins, and many more.

As of May 18, Amplitude’s Kickstarter campaign was sitting at about 50% funded with less than a week to go. That’s when Insomniac’s Ted Price got the ball rolling with a $7,500 pledge and a plea to get the game funded. Fans far and wide spread the word and the Internet responded with almost a full day to spare.

As long as everything goes according to plan, Harmonix expects to launch the Amplitude reboot on the PS3 and PS4 in March 2015. And with a fully-funded Kickstarter campaign, there’s nothing to stop them now.

Back in the PlayStation 2 era, Harmonix made Frequency and Amplitude, arguably some of the best rhythm games of their time. Harmonix decided to launch a Kickstarter to remake Amplitude in HD, but with just a few days left, they’re still woefully short. And that’s where Insomniac Games has stepped in to try to save the day.

Insomniac wrote fondly about Harmonix, saying “For a long time, Guitar Hero and Rock Band competitions were a weekly, if not daily, occurrence around the office,” and referring to FreQuency and Amplitude as “two of our favorite music games, and two of the best PlayStation 2 games of all-time.”

With all that fondness, Insomniac pledged $7,500, the “your song in our game” level, to the Amplitude Kickstarter, and they are urging everyone to join in and help make this remake a reality. With their pledge, they’ve chosen their song, Crazy Ride, to be added to the game.

How about you? Did you pledge already? While I’m sure there are few of us who can pledge at $7,500, there are still lots of great levels to pledge at, and plenty of cool rewards to get. Check it out!

Harmonix is bringing back Amplitude and they’ve turned to Kickstarter to help fund development.

Amplitude was originally released in 2003 for the PS2 and tasked players with piloting a “Beat Blaster” down a track. Musical notes littered the track and players were required to tap buttons in time with the music to capture the section and continue on through the rest of the track. The new Amplitude is in development as a digital download for the PS3 and PS4 and will feature the same “core mechanics and hallmark difficulty” as the original, albeit enhanced with high definition visuals.

The new Amplitude will include a variety of songs composed by Harmonix’s in-house audio team. The tracks will have an “electronic-based feel” and Harmonix wants to include many different types of music “with tones spanning dark and moody to bright and bouncing.” If the crowdfunding campaign is a huge success, the developer plans to use the extra funds to pursue licensed music from popular artists.

Harmonix is seeking $775,000 to make the new Amplitude a reality and, as of this writing, they’re currently sitting on $146,377 in pledges (18% of the total). If all goes well, the game could be released as early as March 2015.