14 DAY TRIAL // Harmonix and MTV Games might be on the verge of a big coup as far as fans of music games are concerned. The biggest band in the world, The Beatles, are set to release their songs for gamers to enjoy on Rock Band and Rock Band 2.
The Wall Street Journal is quoting sources inside Apple Corps, the company which handles the interests of the remaining Beatles, and sources in Viacom, the parent company of MTV, that are saying a deal is pretty much done. Apparently, an announcement will come today or tomorrow detailing how the deal will work.
The Beatles are a huge prize in the battle between Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour because of their popularity and of the size and sales of their catalog. It's also worth noting that they have not licensed songs to be sold via music download service likes iTunes yet, so getting Beatles songs into Rock Band would mean that they are released as DLC for the first time. It would also mean that Harmonix and MTV could counter the big names that have deals with Activision, like Aerosmith and Metallica, with a big name of their own.
The challenge now for Harmonix will be to create a clear schedule for The Beatles related releases. First, we will probably be getting a few songs and maybe a track pack that can be downloaded from the Xbox Live Marketplace and from the PlayStation Store. Afterwards, we might just see a Rock Band: The Beatles, a game which would allow people to play the biggest songs of the best band in the world. Sure, it would be challenging to pick which songs would be featured in such a release, but gamers would probably jump at the chance to play “Yesterday”, “Let It Be” and other classics.