Harmonix keen to launch musical iPhone games

Rock Band console developer Harmonix is keen to launch music games on the iPhone, according to CEO Alex Rigopulos.

"Believe me, we're looking at the iPhone," he tells Ars Technica.

"If we take a stop on that platform, we want to do it right, so we're thinking about the specific attributes of the iPhone so we can make it the right step where we can make the product that's the right product for that platform."

Harmonix isn't a stranger to Apple, of course. The company released innovative music title Phase for traditional iPods last year.

Rigopulos says that porting that game to iPhone is certainly possible, but that Harmonix is looking to do more.

"I'm wondering if there isn't something that's more ambitious that we could do as well. I don't think we have any specific plans there yet, but needless to say, we're looking at it."

iPhone already has several music games, including Gameloft's Guitar Rock Tour, and Tapulous' Tap Tap Revenge family of games.

However, the platform doesn't yet support the kind of  downloadable content (DLC) features seen in Rock Band on console, meaning that music gamers can't pay for and download new tracks from within iPhone games.

Tapulous has found a workaround that involves streaming tracks into Tap Tap Revenge, but if Harmonix is keen to do a Rock Band style title for iPhone (or, indeed, Rock Band itself), it might be preferable to wait until Apple fully enables DLC for iPhone games.