Fuser

In Fuser, the player takes the role of a DJ at a large concert, creating mashups of various songs. Gameplay consists of controlling a virtual DJ table with four record players, custom instruments, sound filters, and up to 24 pre-selected songs called a "crate" available to remix. Each song is separated into four stems, which are keyed by color and related to a type of musical instrument such as drums, guitar or vocals. At any time, the player can pick a song, select a stem from that song, and place it on any of the record players to add the selected stem the current mix.

The game automatically adjusts the mix's tempo and musical key. Additionally, players can cue a second instrument track, which can be then switched back and forth individually with a single drop or using a "riser" that transitions them over a short period. Audio filters can be used on each instrument, and the user has the ability to create various instrument loops via a synthesizer which then can be added as another instrument. This concept is comparable to Harmonix's prior game DropMix, which was a physical card game incorporating NFC technology with an electronic game board and mobile app that was published through Hasbro.

Harmonix had announced a publishing deal through NCSoft in August 2018 for a rhythm game for personal computers and consoles. Harmonix's Dan Sussman said that NCSoft had seen the game in an early state and quickly became their publishing partner for it, including support for showcasing the game at industry events. Fuser was announced at the 2020 PAX East event in February 2020, with plans for release on November 10, 2020.

Sussman said that Fuser was a continued evolution of their music games in how they have looked at player agency. With Fuser, Sussman believed that many players of their games have a wide range of musical tastes and wished to have more control of how they interacted with the game's music, thus enabling them to be creative with their tastes. Additionally, Harmonix found that with games like Rock Band, which offered a large number of songs, the songs essentially became disposable as players didn't have much incentive to learn the songs in details; players wanted a game that gave them an opportunity to get more familiar with the structure of a song. Compared to many of Harmonix's past games, Fuser does not require any special peripherals; Harmonix's Dan Walsh said the main driver behind this decision was accessibility and ease of bringing the game to market, both as retail and digital products. Sussman also found that because Fuser featured gameplay distinct from their previous games, it was able to draw both experienced rhythm game players and new players.

Fuser received a generally positive reception from critics. The PC release received "mixed or average reviews". Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received strong approval, being recommended by 78% of critics.