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Video: Beatles: Rock Band's 'Sgt. Pepper's' DLC

by David Hinkle { Nov 16th 2009 at 6:05PM }

The Beatles: Rock Band will get a hot DLC injection tomorrow when Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band releases as downloadable content. In preparation for the arrival of these new tracks, MTV has passed along the above trailer which offers a brief sample of new tracks in the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club album mixed together with some found on the disc. In the end, the video saves us all precious time we would've had to use sampling tracks on YouTube and, inevitably, watching Pomplamoose videos.

Beatles: Rock Band 'Sgt. Pepper's' DLC debuts Nov. 17

by Xav de Matos { Nov 13th 2009 at 10:15AM }

In a move no doubt inspired by the Movember Movement, Harmonix and MTV Games have revealed that the second DLC album for The Beatles: Rock Band, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, will release the week of November 17. Tracks from the British sensation's eighth studio album, as featured in the DLC release, include:

"Fixing A Hole"
"She's Leaving Home"
"Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!"
"Within You Without You"
"When I'm Sixty-Four"
"Lovely Rita"
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)"
"A Day In The Life."

Xbox 360 and Wii owners can purchase the DLC on Tuesday, November 17. The tracks will be available as a complete Track Pack for 1080

($13.50) or 160

($2.00) individually on Xbox 360; and 200 Wii Points ($2.00) per track on Wii. PlayStation 3 players get a few extra days to grow out their glorious mustaches when the pack lands on PSN on Thursday, November 19 for $13.49 (or $1.99 per track).

As previously revealed, Beatles fans can look forward to next month when 1965's Rubber Soul will become available as the game's third full-album DLC.

Harmonix employees harmonize during a cappella Paramore song performance

by Ben Gilbert { Nov 9th 2009 at 7:02PM }

Since only a fraction of Joystiq is headquartered out of Boston, MA we unfortunately aren't eligible to be honored with "Top Places to Work" awards like Beatles: Rock Band developers Harmonix, nonetheless host a company-wide singing contest. If we could though, we'd like to think our singing chops would at least match the five gentlemen (four from audio and one engineer) found singing Paramore's "That's What You Get" after the break.

Winning first "among mid-size companies" and third overall in The Boston Globe's "Top Places to Work" survey, the 320 employee-strong music/rhythm-game studio was praised for its studio-wide a cappella singing competition. "I would do a lot to stay here," says senior writer Helen McWilliams. "It's really hard to imagine going from this company to any other company." That whole "making successful games" thing probably doesn't hurt either.

(Thanks, DarkArchon)

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Dhani Harrison: Rock Band 3 will make you better at actual rocking

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 7th 2009 at 1:00PM }

In a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune, Dhani Harrison, The Beatles: Rock Band contributor (and son of the late, great George Harrison), spoke about his involvement in future iterations of the popular rhythm franchise. "I'm working on Rock Band 3 and making the controllers more real so people can actually learn how to play music while playing the game," Harrison explained toward the end of the interview. "Give me a couple years, it's going to happen."

We wish Harrison and the entire Harmonix crew the best of luck in this endeavor, if only so they can finally stymie the infinitely deplorable "why don't you learn how to play a real instrument" contingency. Man, we hate those guys.

Viacom: The Beatles: Rock Band sales strong, overall RB growth slow

by David Hinkle { Nov 4th 2009 at 8:29PM }

Even though John, Paul, George and Ringo have been rocking the disc tray of your favorite console with The Beatles: Rock Band, its expectation-exceeding sales haven't helped boost overall Rock Band sales. Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman told USA Today the "economics of our Rock Band franchise are improving, though not as quickly as we'd like." There's still hope that Rock Band could at least break even or show a small profit, though Viacom CFO Tom Dooley said that will depend entirely on the franchise's performance this holiday season.

Despite tanking sales, the music genre still remains one of the best in the industry and The Beatles: Rock Band shows us that the right approach could still determine financial success in the space. Its September debut was very fortuitous and it even managed to best Guitar Hero 5 in the US -- which not only came with a free game, but is also one of the most recognizable brands to the mainstream.

Source - USA Today
Source - Viacom earnings report

Here comes the trailer for Abbey Road from The Beatles: Rock Band (do do do)

by Ben Gilbert { Oct 20th 2009 at 2:00PM }

For those of you ready to Carry That Weight and swing Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Harmonix and MTV Games released the full "Abbey Road" album download today for The Beatles: Rock Band. Rather than simply release the songs, the DLC comes with new animations for the four British gents and, in some cases, new "dreamscapes" (the pseudo-psychedelic animations tripping our your friends while you play songs).

The trailer above offers a medley sampling of the whole album, should you not be acquainted with it. But then, we must ask, what planet are you from where "Abbey Road" is an unfamiliar album?

Gallery: The Beatles: Rock Band: Abbey Road DLC

The Beatles: Rock Band 'Abbey Road' album DLC detailed

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 19th 2009 at 3:30PM }

The Beatles: Rock Band will have the entire Abbey Road album available for download this Tuesday on Xbox 360 and Wii, followed by PS3 on Thursday. The full album won't be lonely for long, as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band will arrive in November, with Rubber Soul walking onto the scene in December.

The full Abbey Road DLC setlist and pricing details can be found after the break.

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Harmonix taking 'wait and see' approach with The Beatles DLC

by Andrew Yoon { Oct 9th 2009 at 3:41PM }

You're undoubtedly familiar with our Rock Band Weekly feature. Harmonix has been able to produce weekly DLC for the Rock Band franchise across nearly every platform it graces, so it came as a surprise when we discovered the studio's hesitant attitude towards The Beatles. While three albums are already in the works as DLC, Harmonix representative John Drake told The BBPS that future releases are entirely dependent on sales of the initial batch of DLC. His explanation? "It costs thousands of dollars" to produce the DLC.

"It's not like Rock Band where we wait for the masters to come in and just author them ... its like, send people to Abbey Road, use the original tape, separate them out," Drake detailed. In addition to the audio work that must be done, Harmonix has also promised to include original dreamscapes for future downloadable content as well.

It seems likely Harmonix will find the sales necessary to produce more DLC, considering the retail success of the game so far. "If they sell well, we'll have a lot more content," Drake promises.

Activision: Guitar Hero beat Beatles because it's 'fun as hell'

by Justin McElroy { Oct 7th 2009 at 7:30PM }

We were just as perplexed as anyone when Guitar Hero 5 trounced The Beatles: Rock Band in the UK -- where we hear the Fab Four is fairly popular still. Thankfully, Activision's Guitar Hero business CEO, Rock 'n' Roll Dan Rosensweig, is there to explain it all. "The number one thing about Guitar Hero is that it's fun as hell -- it's focused on the guitar, and the variety and value proposition -- and the reviews are spectacular. So I guess we're the only ones not surprised."

Rosensweig went on to tell GamesIndustry.biz that "internally we always talked about the Fab Five - Guitar Hero 5 - was going to beat the Fab Four." So, we've also discovered Activision's real secret weapon that keeps it ahead of the competition: Hilarious wordplay.

EA confirms The Beatles: Rock Band SingStar mic pack for UK, other territories

by Ben Gilbert { Sep 22nd 2009 at 5:59PM }

The Beatles: Rock Band SingStar bundle has arrived at UK retailers for £49.99 ($81.87). Only after being half-announced by MTV Games, showing up on an Australian retailer website, and then vaguely detailed in a press release from today, are we able to bring you this news. Is it coming to other territories? That's a good question!

We asked EA, who gave us a laundry list of launch dates for various European and African countries (listed after the break). Unfortunately, we were told that the exclusion of North America from the list means that the publisher currently has no intention of bringing the microphone bundle Stateside. Sorry, aspiring North American crooners!

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'All You Need is Love' becomes fastest-selling Rock Band song

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Sep 18th 2009 at 3:45PM }

Microsoft has announced that "All You Need is Love," the first downloadable song for The Beatles: Rock Band, became the fastest-selling tune in the franchise's history within the first two days of availability. We'd like to believe that the Xbox-exclusive track was entirely propelled by the spirit of philanthropy, with proceeds from sales ("tens of thousands of dollars," Microsoft says) benefiting Doctors Without Borders, but its success probably comes from the fact that it's "All You Need is Love." By The Beatles.

A limited edition Beatles-themed Xbox 360, bearing artwork from the game's introduction video, was also sold by Microsoft during an online charity auction. After ten days, the system took off for $17,300.

If you've yet to expand the legendary band's in-game lineup or hope to gain entry in the on-going Beatles sweepstakes, keep in mind that revenue from "All You Need is Love" is still going to charity. All you need is 160

Nick Mason: We'd consider Pink Floyd Rock Band or Guitar Hero

by David Hinkle { Sep 16th 2009 at 12:45PM }

Despite how some musicians feel about music 'n' rhythm games, Pink Floyd drummer (and part-time T-Zero agent) Nick Mason isn't entirely ruling it out for his band. With The Beatles: Rock Band having just released, the BBC asked him if we could be seeing a Pink Floyd Rock Band or Guitar Hero game, to which he replied, "I think we'd consider it."

While he isn't a big supporter of the genre (he thinks it deters kids from learning real instruments, just like other celebs do), he did add, "Everyone's looking at new ways of selling the music because the business of selling records has almost disappeared." Especially those vinyl ones, which (gasp!) weren't even interactive.

Rock Band Stage Kit compatibility not being patched into The Beatles: Rock Band

by Alexander Sliwinski { Sep 11th 2009 at 4:40PM }

Owners of the Rock Band Stage Kit must accept that the device will not be compatible with The Beatles: Rock Band. Harmonix has confirmed to Joystiq that there are "no plans to patch it for The Beatles: Rock Band." As to whether the device will be compatible with future editions of Rock Band, a company rep stated, "We haven't announced any future titles at this time."

There's been some back and forth on the Rock Band forums about whether the smoke machine and disco ball-ish device -- originally $100 (but cheaper now) -- would be patched into The Beatles game. We hope this settles it -- not that you have a choice, apparently.

[Thanks, Jeremy F]

The Beatles: Rock Band DLC to include original dreamscapes

by Justin McElroy { Sep 9th 2009 at 3:16PM }

If you plow halfway through The Beatles: Rock Band today, you'll notice that all the songs taking place in a studio setting (as opposed to The Ed Sullivan Show or Shea Stadium, for example) feature really lovely animations, which Harmonix calls "dreamscapes," inspired by the song they accompany. The developer tells us that the DLC albums arriving in the coming months will receive similar treatment.

"DLC songs which don't end up in historical venues will have custom dreamscapes, yes," said Dare Matheson Lead Artist on the game at Harmonix. "There will be visual themes and elements that will stretch from the on-disc dreamscapes into the DLC dreamscapes, but everyone is custom, unique, and fully-crafted for the song it will accompany. It's a bargain!" At the same $2-per-song price as regular 'ol Rock Band DLC, we can't help but agree.

PAX 2009 interview: The Beatles: Rock Band lead designer Chris Foster

by Kevin Kelly { Sep 9th 2009 at 12:44PM }

The Beatles: Rock Band drops today, along with the band's remastered albums ~~availability on iTunes (?)~~ and a flood of Beatles: Rock Band news. Fans will be wailing on plastic instruments all day in an effort to travel back in time and live out their fantasies of becoming musical legends.

We caught up with lead designer Chris Foster at PAX, who gave up some secrets about the game (including the scrapped "forever" mode). Read on for the full interview.