FUSER, Harmonix’s wonderfully ridiculous music-mixing game is being delisted later this month.
In other words, if you haven’t purchased FUSER already, as of December 19th you’ll never be able to get your hands on it. If you are a FUSER owner, you’ll can still play the game after that date, but not purchase any new songs. And all this is happening just two years after the game stepped out onto the digital stage.
You read that right. Two years. It’s a real shame – we reviewed FUSER back in November 2020 and had a blast with it. What makes it such fun is that you can mash-up a huge number of song elements, no matter how strange the combination. Want to mix Dolly Parton’s Jolene and Smash Mouth’s All-Star? Go right ahead.
But now the party’s over and FUSER is packing up its mixer kit. Harmonix hasn’t given an explanation, their announcement simply thanking fans for playing. The statement doesn’t specifically reference the game’s “Diamond Stage” multiplayer feature but, as a “live service” that’ll be going too.
So what are your options? If you already own FUSER you can keep playing it indefinitely, you just won’t be able to buy any new DLC. And if you’re thinking of purchasing it but haven’t, get buying. The same goes for any DLC you might want – snap it up now. There was no new DLC in the works because, as announced at the beginning of this year, Harmonix had already closed that door.
It’s tempting to roll our eyes and at a “live service” game that pulled the plug after meagre two years. And yes, we’re absolutely going to do that but music rights can be a real minefield. Every so often you’ll hear about a game such as Grand Theft Auto V losing songs because the rights have expired and this may be a similar situation.
So, FUSER might be disappearing because Harmonix and publisher NCSoft had limited rights to those tracks. Granted, that’s supposition on our part but as copyright attorney Derek Dessler puts it, licensing music is “labyrinth-like”. You can read Dessler’s summary of the situation here.
So soon, FUSER will be out of your each. If you’ve been thinking about picking it up (it’s available on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC), do it. Because, come December 19th, the party’s over.
