In 1995, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology saw two graduates – one of computer science and musical composition, the other of computer science and electrical engineering – form the startup development outfit Harmonix. Today, over thirteen years later, Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy have been granted over $300m in bonuses for exceeding company performance targets.

MTV parent company Viacom yesterday announced that the duo who turned five colour-coded fret buttons into a gaming icon will be receiving a pay-bonus of around $150m, with a final pay bonus next year expected to be in excess of that figure. The deal is in place due to the bonus structure that was set out when MTV acquired Harmonix for $175m back in 2006.

Both Rigopulos and Egozy have received such bonuses ever since the takeover, yet this year’s figure of $150m – nearly the same amount that Harmonix was originally bought for – has even stunned its holding company. “We may not have anticipated the payment would be that high,” Viacom spokesperson Kelly McAndrew told Bloomberg, “but it's based on what they have achieved. If they are making more money for us and we have to give a little back, that's OK.''

The Harmonix team, whose first stab at videogames came from the 1998 PC game The Axe: Titans of Rock, has seen its Rock Band titles sell 7m copies in 13 countries despite the heavy ($190) price-tag for the whole instrument set. The game has also generated 26m music downloads and has produced retail sales of $143m for the third quarter.

Though Harmonix has been primarily concerned with music games over the past thirteen years, previous titles such as the PS2’s FreQuency and Amplitude never had the same success as the 2005 trend-setter Guitar Hero (said with apologies to GuitarFreaks’ Benami and Konami). The Rock Band series continues apace, with Barclays Capital analyst Anthony DiClemente suggesting sales of Rock Band could grow 10 percent by the end of 2009.