The Beatles: Rock Band

The Beatles: Rock Band 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, 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 September 9, 2009, coinciding with 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 Beatles Sir 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."

Harmonix stated, despite building on the Rock Band gameplay, the songs will not be available as downloadable content for other games in the Rock Band series. While existing Rock Band-compatible controllers will work with the standalone game, Harmonix has developed special Beatles-themed instruments to be released as part of a bundle.

The "unexpected, unannounced world premiere" of footage from the game showing the Beatles members rendered in the Rock Band engine were shown during Sir Paul McCartney's performance at the 2009 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Gameplay
The game allows players to perform in virtual bands by providing up to four 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 a microphone for vocals). These peripherals are used to simulate the playing of rock music by hitting scrolling notes on-screen. Several sources indicate that the game will include support for up to three vocalists on separate microphones to perform vocal harmonies, though this has yet to be confirmed by MTV Games or Harmonix.

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 backwards 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 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 has been rumoured to include 45 master tracks, chosen from the Beatles albums recorded during their 1962–1969 tenure with EMI Records (including some unreleased material) ; however, in a post to the official Rock Band forum, a Harmonix developer denied having disclosed track numbers. A partial track list will be revealed at the 2009 E3 Convention during the first week of June.

The game will include Beatles tracks whose publishing rights are owned by Sony/ATV Music Publishing Company.