John Drake Leaves Harmonix

For anybody involved in the Rock Band community, John Drake will be instantly recognizable. As a key member in the Harmonix team, he was a regular target of people who disappointed once again by the distinct lack of classic rock (or punk, or metal, or hair metal, or…). This weekend he announced he’d be leaving the music game developer, but not without promising that Harmonix have some great things to come.

From John Drake’s Tumblr (where you can read a longer goodbye):

This is a weird thing to post.

After 7 awesome years, today is my last day at Harmonix. 

The team that’s at Harmonix makes amazing things. There are upcoming games you know about, like Fantasia: Music Evolved, Dance Central Spotlight, and Amplitude. There are games you don’t know about just yet and games that haven’t even begun. Here’s a guarantee I can make you: all of these games are going to be transformative experiences in interactive music. Harmonix is an unstoppable force of great things – I’m so proud to have called them colleagues, collaborators, and friends, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

Thank you to the amazing fans of Harmonix, who have supported our games for the last decade. I’ve been proud to answer your questions, hang out with you at events, and become friends with many of you. It’s a weird world where we can be connected via twitter and video games and sporadic events but form real friendships.

What’s next for me? While I don’t have anything to announce today, I’m planning on staying in video games. If I get my way, you’ll be hearing from me again very soon.

We wish John all the best in the future and look forward to seeing what’s in his future.