14 DAY TRIAL // The Beatles Rock Band launches in less than a day and initial looks at the game, coming from critics, mention the attention to detail from MTV Games and Harmonix for introducing the players into the atmosphere of the band, going as far as getting old studio tapes of the four talking before and after shows, reconditioning them and playing them as interludes in the music sim.
Sir Paul McCartney told the Observer Music Magazine, referring to George Harrison and John Lennon, that “I think they would have been amused. I think they would have seen the point of it.”
Yoko Ono also stated that her former husband “would have been excited about the Rock Band concept, and very happy with how the music and the visuals of the Beatles were represented. It will inspire and encourage the young generation to be intimately involved in music making. You can't ask for more. It will be another musical revolution created by the Beatles to make our planet a planet of music.”
Apparently, the four main shareholders in the Apple Corps were not very easy to convince about the benefits that The Beatles Rock Band would bring to the legacy of the band and to the overall ability of a new generation to enjoy their songs. It seems that only the degree of attention delivered by Harmonix to replicating the experiences of The Beatles convinced Sir Paul McCartney and the rest to jump on board and get the videogame out at the same time as the remastered discography of the band.
Even then, the four shareholders only agreed to take part in the process if the upcoming game if demands like “it needs to feel analogue, it needs to feel British, and even though it's a videogame, it shouldn't feel computery” were met. The result will be seen when players finally get their hands on the game on September 9.