The Beatles: Rock Band

The Beatles: Rock Band is a is a teen-rated music video game being developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and distributed by Electronic Arts. The game will consist of songs by The Beatles, from their first album, Please Please Me, to their last recorded album with record label EMI, Abbey Road, as well as previously unreleased material according to Dhani Harrison, son of the late George Harrison.

The game will be released internationally on 9 September 2009, coinciding with the release of the remastered versions of The Beatles catalogue. The game will be shipped as a bundle with themed instrument controllers and as a standalone game for which all existing Rock Band and compatible music game accessories can be used. The game will incorporate many of the gameplay features of the Rock Band series, however, the game will not be an expansion pack for the Rock Band series, as Harmonix co-founder Alex Rigopulos has stated that this game "...is a new, full game title production built from the ground up."

Development
The Beatles: Rock Band was first revealed when Harmonix and MTV Games announced an exclusive agreement with Apple Corps, Ltd. to produce the standalone title on 30 October 2008. Prior to this announcement, industry rumours reported that both Harmonix/MTV Games and Activision were vying for The Beatles songs, the latter for the Guitar Hero franchise. The agreement was the result of 17 months of discussions. John Drake, PR spokesperson for Harmonix, stated that Apple Corps "respected and appreciated what Harmonix does creatively for rhythm games" as part of the success of the deal.

The game was conceived with input from former The Beatles members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Yoko Ono Lennon, Olivia Harrison and Giles Martin. Martin, the co-producer of The Beatles Love project, will serve as music producer for the game. Dhani Harrison, son of George and Olivia, has also been actively involved in the project, including modeling for character animation.

The game will feature a visual and musical history of The Beatles and will include the United Kingdom-released versions of songs from their albums Please Please Me through to Abbey Road. The game will "feature different periods of the band — you get early days, Liverpool, then psychedelic and on from there," according to McCartney. Dhani Harrison has stated the game will include "stuff that has never been heard, never been released." Gamestop's vice-president of sales, Bob McKenzie, noted after seeing a demonstration of the game, that the game includes "some of the cutscenes and some of the added material from the band and from that era."

Promotion
On April 18, 2009, during Paul McCartney's performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, footage was shown from the The Beatles: Rock Band featuring The Beatles members rendered in the Rock Band engine.

The game was formally showcased on June 1, 2009 at E3 2009. Presented by Harmonix at the beginning of the Microsoft press conference, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr briefly took the stage to discuss the games. Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, wives of the late John Lennon and George Harrison also made a brief appearance.

The same day, a press release was issued revealing ten of the game's 45 songs. Two trailers of the game also premiered; one featuring gameplay and the other of the game's opening cinematic. . The introductory cinematic includes two songs listed in the press release as well as the unannounced songs "Twist and Shout," "A Hard Day's Night" and "Paperback Writer". The heavily stylized cinematic was produced in part by Pete Candeland of Passion Pictures, with help from animator Robert Valley and background visuals from Alberto Mielgo. (The full list of credits can be found on the Passion Pictures website.) Candeland, who is known for his work animating Gorillaz videos, also produced the opening cinematics for both the original Rock Band and Rock Band 2. The cinematic has been highly praised, including being called "surreal" and "simply stunning".

Gameplay
The game allows players to perform in virtual bands by providing up to six players with the ability to play three different peripherals modeled after music instruments (a guitar peripheral for lead guitar and bass guitar gameplay, a drum peripheral and up to three microphones for vocals). These peripherals are used to simulate the playing of rock music by hitting scrolling notes on-screen. The game will include support for up to three vocalists on separate microphones to perform vocal harmonies, in addition to lead, bass, and drums.

The game will feature gameplays modes similar to other Rock Band games. Story Mode is similar to the Career mode of the first Rock Band game, and follows The Beatles through their history. On top of Story Mode are Chapter Challenges, allowing players to attempt specific feats during the chapters of Story Mode. Players can play any song in the game either cooperatively through Quickplay, or competitively in Tug of War and Score Duel modes. In addition to the Drum Trainer (called "Beatle Beats" for this game), there will also be a trainer for the three-part vocal harmonies.

Several historical venues were recreated for the game, including The Cavern Club, the set of the Ed Sullivan Show, Shea Stadium, The Budokan, Abbey Road Studios, and the rooftop of the Apple Corps Headquarters. The venues also include Dreamscapes in conjunction with the Abbey Road venue, representing the transformation of the band in its later years.

Instrument peripherals


All currently available Rock Band peripherals will be compatible with their respective console version of The Beatles: Rock Band. Similarly, newly designed peripherals for The Beatles: Rock Band will be backward compatible with other Rock Band titles. Controllers from Guitar Hero games will also work with the game.

Four new instrument peripherals modeled after those used by The Beatles members will be introduced with the game. These include a Rickenbacker 325 guitar, a Gretsch Duo Jet guitar, a Höfner bass, and a Ludwig drum set. A "Special Edition" bundle of the game will include one Höfner bass controller, one Ludwig-branded drum controller, a microphone, a microphone stand, and yet-to-be-revealed "additional special content". The Rickenbacker and Gretsch guitar peripherals will be sold separately.

Soundtrack
The game will include 45 master tracks chosen from The Beatles albums recorded during their 1962–1969 tenure with EMI Records. Previously unreleased studio chatter will also be included. The game will include The Beatles tracks whose publishing rights are owned by Sony/ATV Music Publishing Company.

The following songs are confirmed for inclusion in the game:

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Furthermore, the game will include additional downloadable content including full albums; Abbey Road will be released for the game shortly after launch. "All You Need Is Love" will also be released as time-limited exclusive downloadable content for Xbox 360 on the same day the game is released, and will be released shortly thereafter on the PlayStation 3 and Wii marketplaces. Proceeds from sales of the song will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.

Downloadable content for The Beatles: Rock Band will not be playable on other Rock Band titles. Likewise, downloadable content for Rock Band will not be compatible with The Beatles: Rock Band. In keeping the content between the two separated, there will also be no export function in The Beatles: Rock Band that will allow one to copy the game's disc songs to a console's hard drive (à la the original Rock Band or various Rock Band "Track Packs").