14 DAY TRIAL // Could The Beatles decide the competition between Rock Band, coming from MTV Games and Harmonix, plus Guitar Hero, coming from Activision? There's an interesting report from the Financial Times that suggests this might be the case.
Representatives of the surviving members of the band are even now talking with both companies mentioned above about how a Beatles themed game would look and how it would employ the immense back catalog of the arguably most important band in the world.
A licensing deal for a game would be a complicated affair as it involves a lot of interested parties. Apple Corp (no, not the one headed by Steve Jobs) was established by the Beatles themselves to represent their business interests and has to approve all deals related to the band. EMI, the music company, also has to approve any deal because it has property of the master recordings of The Beatles.
A source declared that a multi million dollar deal might be coming in a few weeks but all parties involved are denying commenting on the rumors. Currently, Rock Band is selling more copies than Guitar Hero on all major markets, mainly due to the deeper gameplay experience that it offers.
Activision is now developing Guitar Hero: World Tour, a sequel to Guitar Hero III which aims to also introduce new instruments to the game in addition to a song creator. Rock Band is also rumored to be preparing a new game to compete with Activision.
Both games are now offering songs from various artists as downloadable content and they are expanding to acquire exclusive rights to the work of various artists. One Activision spokesman declined any comment regarding a Beatles deal while an MTV spokesman stated, "We are talking to virtually every major rock artist all the time about ways we might get them involved in Rock Band".