Games

The Beatles: Rock Band Debuts at E3 2009

By Eli Green
June 1, 2009 - 18:40

Original Beatles band members Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, kicked off E3 2009 today with the world premiere of the first ever Beatles video game, The Beatles: Rock Band. This game represents a huge collaboration between the music and video game industries, even bigger than the previous titles in the Rock Band franchise, as it will not just be the release of a new video game, but a massive licensing agreement for music from The Beatles' catalogue, plus their likenesses and, essentially, the band's biography. In all, the creation of this game has seen collaboration between The Beatles' multimedia corporation Apple Corps and Harmonix, MTV Games, Electronic Arts, EMI, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, as well as the three major console manufacturers, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.

The Fab Four in video game form.

When the game releases on September 9^th, it will be the first time gamers will be able to experience The Beatles' musical career for themselves, from their early days in Liverpool in 1963, all the all to their final performance on the rooftop of the Apple Corps building. Not only that, but you'll be able to get into it full force, with three-part vocal harmonies. There's still more. The game will include a number of previously unreleased authentic voice recordings of John, Paul, George and Ringo chatting between takes during sessions recorded at Abbey Road over decades ago.

The Beatles: Rock Band will include a full featured story mode that takes players on an interactive journey through The Beatles' career. Along the way, the venues, set lists, clothing and instruments will relive the band’s rise to fame, represented in The Beatles' touring period from 1963 to1966 and their studio days from 1966 to 1969.

Performing on the roof of the Apple Corps building.

You'll start out from the band's earliest days, playing The Cavern Club in Liverpool, England in 1963, move on to the band's performance at The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, to their sold out concert at Shea Stadium in 1965 and conclude at The Beatles’ memorable concert at Budokan in Tokyo, Japan in 1966. From there you'll hit Studio 2 at the Abbey Road Studios. The development team at Harmonix took a lot of artistic liberty with the design for this part of the game, highlighting the studio years with artistic visual expressions they are calling Dreamscapes, “intended to transport players to imaginative environments that capture the essence of The Beatles’ genre-busting musical and fashion transformations during their later years”.

Out of the entire Beatles catalogue, 45 songs will be available directly on the disc. Giles Martin, co-producer of The Beatles innovative LOVE album project and Music Supervisor/Creative Producerfor The Beatles: Rock Band, unveiled the first ten songs that will be available on the game-disc: I Saw Her Standing There, I Want To Hold Your Hand, I Feel Fine, Taxman, Day Tripper, Back In The USSR, I Am The Walrus, Octopus’s Garden, Here Comes The Sun, and Get Back. The rest of the tracks will be announced at a later date. Also, the entire Abbey Road album will be made available as downloadable content (DLC) , along with additional music from The Beatles' catalogue.

Playing the Ed Sullivan Show.

As previously announced, The Beatles: Rock Band will offer a new set of instrument controllers designed to look like the instruments made famous by John, Paul, George and Ringo. Featured in the set are the Rickenbacker 325 and Gretsch Duo Jet guitars – hailed as two of the celebrated, signature instruments played by John Lennon and George Harrison throughout their careers – as well as a Höfner bass controller – a large-scale version of the bass famously used by Sir Paul McCartney – and a Ringo Starr inspired, Ludwig-branded Rock Band 2 drum set with a classic pearl finish and vintage remake of a Beatles kick drum head.

Along with all of this news comes the announcement that, on the date of the game's release, there will be two other major Beatles related releases. The first will be the release of All You Need Is Love as Xbox Live exclusive DLC. This will be a special release with all Apple Corps, MTV Games and Microsoft proceeds of the purchase of the song benefiting Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). McCartney, Starr, Ono and Harrison personally selected Doctors Without Borders as the beneficiary of the proceeds. The second side announcement was that the entire original, digitally re-mastered Beatles CD catalogue will also be releasing on September 9^th.

Live from the Octopus's Garden. This shot doesn't do the game justice.

The Beatles: Rock Band will be releasing worldwide on September 9^th (09/09/09) for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii and is rated T for Teen. It will be compatible with all other Rock Band instrument controllers, as well as most Guitar Hero instrument controllers, and some third party peripherals and microphones as well. For more information on The Beatles: Rock Band, including venues and more, go to www.thebeatlesrockband.com. We hope to have some of the footage from the premiere for you soon.

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