Beatles Rock Band coming 9/9/09 with special Beatles instruments

[Queasy]

Press Release

APPLE CORPS LTD., MTV AND HARMONIX ANNOUNCE
?THE BEATLES: ROCK BAND,?
WORLDWIDE RELEASE SET FOR 9/9/09

New York, NY ? March 5, 2008 ? Apple Corps, Ltd., Harmonix and MTV Games, a part of Viacom?s MTV Networks, today announced the 9/9/09 worldwide release of The Beatles: Rock Band. The music-based video game, an unprecedented, experiential progression through and celebration of the music and artistry of The Beatles, will be available simultaneously worldwide in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other territories for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION3 computer entertainment system and Wii home videogame console from Nintendo.

The Beatles: Rock Band will allow fans to pick up the guitar, bass, mic or drums and experience The Beatles extraordinary catalogue of music through gameplay that takes players on a journey through the legacy and evolution of the band?s legendary career. In addition, The Beatles: Rock Band will offer a limited number of new hardware offerings modeled after instruments used by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr throughout their career.

The Beatles: Rock Band will be offered as standalone software and hardware as well as a limited edition bundle. The game will be compatible with all Rock Band instrument controllers and other current music-based video game peripherals.

Available on 9/9/09:

? The Beatles: Rock Band Software - Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii: $59.99 MSRP
? The Beatles: Rock Band Standalone Guitars - Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii: $99.99 MSRP
? The Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition Premium Bundle: Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii: $249.99 MSRP

Please note: Pricing outside of the US to be announced at a later date.

The Beatles: Rock Band marks the first time that Apple Corps, along with EMI Music, Harrisongs Ltd, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, has agreed to present The Beatles music in an interactive video game format. The Beatles: Rock Band will be published by MTV Games and developed by Harmonix, the world?s premier music video game company and creators of the best-selling Rock Band®. Electronic Arts will serve as distribution partner for the game. In addition, Giles Martin, co-producer of The Beatles innovative LOVE album project, is providing his expertise and serving as Music Producer for this groundbreaking Beatles project.

Exclusive content created by Apple Corps, MTV Games and Harmonix will be made available to fans over the next few months who participate in a pre-order campaign through major retailers. More details on The Beatles: Rock Band game and pre-order will be revealed in the coming months.

Please visit http://www.thebeatlesrockband.com.

No pictures of the 'special instruments' yet.

 

[Oyeve]

Freaking SWEET!

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

I don't like this. This smells very "Guitar Hero-ish" to me. Releasing different flavored versions of the same product. Just release it as a DLC track pack and promote the heck out of it.

This is a bad sign. First GH: Aerosmith, then GH: Metallica, now RB: Beatles?

Can you import the Beatles songs into RB2? I doubt it, so this kind of shoots the whole "one integrated platform" approach Harmonix had with Rock Band that made it great.

This is not good.

 

[tatteredpotato]

Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
I don't like this. This smells very "Guitar Hero-ish" to me. Releasing different flavored versions of the same product. Just release it as a DLC track pack and promote the heck out of it.

This is a bad sign. First GH: Aerosmith, then GH: Metallica, now RB: Beatles?

Can you import the Beatles songs into RB2? I doubt it, so this kind of shoots the whole "one integrated platform" approach Harmonix had with Rock Band that made it great.

This is not good.

Idk maybe it's just me, but the Beatles are a special exception to things like this. They are usually so against any digital distribution that if MTV got them to agree to a game they shouldn't wait for Apple Corps to change their mind.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
Can you import the Beatles songs into RB2?

This is my big question. If not, I'm not at all interested. As much as I love the Beatles, I'm not going to stop and swap out discs every time someone wants to play a Beatles tune.

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: Injury

Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
Can you import the Beatles songs into RB2?

This is my big question. If not, I'm not at all interested. As much as I love the Beatles, I'm not going to stop and swap out discs every time someone wants to play a Beatles tune.

Same.

 

[UpgradeFailure]

This game will be overshadowed by the launch of Dreamcast 2

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: MrChad

Originally posted by: Injury

Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
Can you import the Beatles songs into RB2?

This is my big question. If not, I'm not at all interested. As much as I love the Beatles, I'm not going to stop and swap out discs every time someone wants to play a Beatles tune.

Same.

But if its the complete beatles catalog thats like 201 songs. Big ass DL even if most of their early stuff is 2.5-3 mins.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: Oyeve

Originally posted by: MrChad

Originally posted by: Injury

Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
Can you import the Beatles songs into RB2?

This is my big question. If not, I'm not at all interested. As much as I love the Beatles, I'm not going to stop and swap out discs every time someone wants to play a Beatles tune.

Same.

But if its the complete beatles catalog thats like 201 songs. Big ass DL even if most of their early stuff is 2.5-3 mins.

Not a chance it's the complete catalog. If it were the complete catalog we could expect the price of the game to be about $300... not just because of the rights for all of the songs but because it would take a significant effort to do the programming for each song.

 

[jdport]

I can't remember how many songs it is , but I am pretty sure they said roughly how many songs it would be ... would have to search old threads on this topic. It's not the whole library but it's a good number of songs if I remember right.

As for being able to import it into Rock Band... unless things have changed, it was already stated that you would not be able to. Of course, they also said that this game was not rock band but it's own game that was using the Rock Band technology.. yet now they are calling it Rock Band: Beatles, so who know? Anyway, unless they changed their minds you will not be able to import the songs into Rock Band.. it will be it's own separate thing.

 

[ivol07]

Harmonix can select 45 songs from The Beatles' 1962 to 1969 EMI catalog

Text

 

[sourceninja]

I'll pass, I wouldn't mind playing beatles songs, but I'm not going to switch out disks just to play a few then switch back go play more songs I like. If it's now DLC I'm not interested.

 

[SAWYER]

Lame

 

[KentState]

It seems to be that it's more of a game scripted to play a certain way with Beatles music. Unlike the other music packs, the songs are suppose to emulated the career of the Beatles and just not playing as a cover band like in RB/RB2.

 

[RedRooster]

Ya, playing a McCartney ballad as a band isn't going to be very exciting at all. It'll suck, to be blunt.
Hopefully the fans enjoy it and buy it lots, I'll keep supporting Harmonix in other ways, cuz they still rule.

 

[jdport]

I'll probably buy it.. I am a solo player most of the time anyway.... so I don't care if it plays well in a band. But then again, I haven't gotten around to buying the AC/DC pack which i've planned on buying since day 1.. For now though I'm still playing GH:WT... and at some point will switch back to Rock Band and catch up on any good DLC songs I've missed.... so I may still have stuff to play when this comes out.

 

[Tom]

now that more info is out I bet some of you have changed your minds. 3 part harmony, groovy graphics, instruments look awesome.

hope there is a game plus guitar bundle available.

 

[Pheran]

As much as I love Rock Band, I'm just not interested in this because it's not exportable. I'd really like to be able to play a few Beatles songs in my Rock Band setlists, but I'm not interested in playing all Beatles all the time. Variety is the spice of life.

 

[brblx]

rock band 2 doesn't have support for the vocal harmonies thingee. i guess they could be nice and patch it in, though (and yes, you knew i'd say it, MS would make them charge for it).

 

[Pheran]

I realize that there is no harmony support in RB2, but since they are patching anyway for RBN they could just patch RB2 to ignore whatever extra vocal info is in the Beatles tracks - or just have the export process on the Beatles disc strip it out in the first place.

Regardless, it's moot because it's not exportable. Perhaps if we are lucky it will eventually be importable to RB3, but I'm not holding my breath due to licensing issues.

 

[Tom]

i dont get the importance of importing into rb2 ? it's it's own game, not just a collection of songs.

 

[brblx]

the really silly thing is that you can't even play your rock band 1/2 DLC inside the beatles game. goes completely against what harmonix originally was striving for (a solid 'platform' and a giant array of DLC).

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: Tom
i dont get the importance of importing into rb2 ? it's it's own game, not just a collection of songs.

Thats the problem. The main advantage of Rock Band over GH is you don't have to swap disks and fuck around forever anytime you want to play one song that happens to be from a different game.

The Beatles have the clout to get away with it, but hopefully it doesn't start a trend. The platform nature was really a big deal to me.

 

[Ichigo]

Yeah, my social group isn't the type to be able to stand only Beatles songs for long periods of time. RB2 is great with the diversity of songs; we can always play what we want. This is just annoying. Not buying, but I hope others do since I do like Harmonix overall.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

Originally posted by: brblx
the really silly thing is that you can't even play your rock band 1/2 DLC inside the beatles game. goes completely against what harmonix originally was striving for (a solid 'platform' and a giant array of DLC).

Yeah well if you don't understand that the Beatles are special and whatever they want they get then there's no hope. They wanted their own game in that presentation. They even said that. That is why it can't be imported not because Harmonix didn't want to offer it.