Last year, formerly independent rhythm game developer Harmonix Music Systems, best known for the Guitar Hero titles as well as Frequency (PS2) and Amplitude (PS2), was acquired by media giant MTV. In an earlier unrelated deal, Activision purchased publisher RedOctane, which owned the rights to the Guitar Hero franchise itself. Since that purchase, it was revealed that Tony Hawk developer Neversoft would be handling Guitar Hero going forward, leaving the future activities of Harmonix unclear.

On Tuesday night, during an EA Partners event, Electronic Arts and Harmonix announced that EA would be publishing Harmonix's next title. No information regarding the game was revealed, including its target platforms. Shacknews has learned that an announcement is expected to be released at approximately 5:00am Pacific time today, though the extent of the details to be announced is unclear. The news comes as little surprise, as EA recently indicated that it plans to enter the rhythm genre. Also being published by EA is the Xbox Live Arcade rhythm game Boom Boom Rocket, from Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars (X360) developer Bizarre Creations.

EA Partners is Electronic Arts' publishing arm dedicated to independent third party developers. Current projects working through the EA Partners program include Valve's upcoming Half-Life 2-related games, Crytek's Crysis, Flagship Studios' Hellgate: London, and Pandemic Studios' Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PS2, PS3, X360, PC).

Update: As expected, a press release was issued at 5:00am. It confirmed that EA Partners will handle distribution and marketing of Harmonix's next game, but offered no further details.