Tomorrow morning you’ll be able to fire up your Xbox 360 and download the remaining tracks from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. You’ll have to wait on the PS3 since the store doesn’t update until Thursday. Still undecided on the purchase? Check out a gameplay trailer that Harmonix just shipped over.
The Beatles are arguably the most iconic band of all time. For years, music lovers around the world have flocked to the band’s music to raise their spirits and hearken back to better days. With the release of The Beatles Rock Band, gamers are given the unique opportunity to step foot in the virtual shoes of a Beatle and follow their path of success through a portion of their catalog. The result is a terrifically fun, albeit short gaming experience that should not be missed.
Harmonix is bringing new life to the Rock Band franchise in the form of the Rock Band Network, allowing up and coming bands, and fellow gamers, the chance to put their song IN the Rock Band song catalogue.
This is great news for the Rock Band franchise, and should see the track list of songs jump to an unheard of number of listings. Upon a closer inspection (Joystiq has a a good article on their impressions here), we see that the service to create the first song for your band won’t be as quick of a turnaround as one would like. Most gamers out there will have to put in an average of 20 to 40 hours to create their first track, and some people (myself included) just don’t have the patience for that.
That’s right, friends, The Beatles Rock Band is coming this year, 9-9-09 to be exact. The game will be released in multiple countries on multiple platforms the same day, so get ready.
The Beatles: Rock Band will allow fans to pick up the guitar, bass, mic or drums and experience The Beatles extraordinary catalogue of music through gameplay that takes players on a journey through the legacy and evolution of the band’s legendary career. In addition, The Beatles: Rock Band will offer a limited number of new hardware offerings modeled after instruments used by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr throughout their career.
Sounds like a plan to me. I’m sure Harmonix will do the “journey” right, so expect to play through all The Beatles earlier songs first in the game. I’m a big fan, so I’m pretty excited for this one.
It looks like the $300 million in bonuses that the Harmonix co-founders received got the attention of a few lawyers. On November 18th, Kansas resident Monte Morgan filed a class action lawsuit against Harmonix over broken bass drum pedals that are allegedly defective. The drum pedals in question are from the original Rock Band title that had a knack for breaking under normal use.
EA had issued an extended warranty beyond the original 60 days where the customer could have the defective pedals replaced without a receipt. Since October 1st, 2008 however, the customer is required to have a receipt showing the product in question was purchased within the last 60 days, which is where the problem arises. If the defective pedal is purchased as a gift in advance, the warranty could be up before the device is even used.
Rock Band 2 has an improved drum pedal with a metal plate that remedies the problem. The plaintiff’s have stated that the release of Rock Band 2 and the timing of the extended warranty being dropped has to do with driving sales towards Rock Band 2.
My drum pedal is still going strong but I can understand the resentment. The extended warranty being conveniently dropped at the time of the next Rock Band release is just too obvious. The cost of replacing the old pedals with the new metal version would be high, but isn’t that better than a lawsuit and bad publicity?
We finally have some positive financial news coming from the game industry, sort of. When MTV acquired Harmonix it seems they placed a few incentives into the deal. Harmonix founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy received 150 million dollars last quarter and will receive another payment in 2009 which will exceed 150 million dollars. That’s over 300 million dollars just in bonuses for the hard working founders of our beloved Rock Band franchise.
MTV’s parent company, Viacom released a statement explaining why they are paying Harmonix so much money even though they as a company are performing poorly financially,
“We may not have anticipated the payment would be that high, but it’s based on what they have achieved,” Viacom spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew told Bloomberg. “If they are making more money for us and we have to give a little back, that’s ok.”
I applaud you Viacom for taking the high road unlike most giant corporations and giving back to your employees just like you promised.
[Via Gamesindustry.biz]
It has happened. The Beatles will finally be gracing a rhythm game next Holiday season (that’s 2009 folks). Harmonix/MTV Games and Apple Corp, the company that represents the Beatles, held a conference call this morning to announce the joint venture.
The details are slim for now, but we know it will be a full game based on The Beatles’ music. You’ll be able to follow the band from their humble beginnings all the way through the huge hits. It’ll have the Rock Band feel, so gameplay-wise, I wouldn’t expect anything crazy. All your instruments will work, so don’t worry about having to buy new gear.
Getting to hear it all go down live this morning was pretty fun. I was really hoping to hear “and you’ll be able to download Beatles tracks in Rock Band this week”, but I guess we’ll have to wait a while. It’s gonna be awesome either way.
It looks like Harmonix is as busy as a beaver trying to capitalize off of retail discs. There seems to be another disc (not the AC/DC one) waiting to be released this year and it is called Rock Band Track Pack 2. Wait you say, when did I purchase the first Rock Band Track Pack? Well, if you are a Xbox 360 owner you never have. The first track pack disk was released solely on the PS2 and Wii.
Now on to the details. According to xbox360achievements.org the retail release date is said to be November 18th at the price of $29.99. At this time, there isn’t an official track listing but the achievements give some of them away. Speaking of achievements, there will be 12 of them totalling 250 points. The previous track pack disk contained 20 songs, so the price seems a little steep for people who might already own some of the songs included on the disk. If you don’t already own any of the songs and achievements have some monetary value to you, it might be worth a purchase, you do the math.
It’s baaaaaaaaaaaaack. Rush’s Moving Pictures album is making a triumphant return to the Rock Band DLC catelog. After some technical issues and a few week delay, you’ll be able to grab it all for $10.99 (880 MS Points) or $1.99 (160 MS Points) each. Here’s the track list:
To go along with the full album, a bunch of individual tracks will also be available. It looks like Harmonix is really stepping up the DLC after the Xbox 360 release of Rock Band 2. Here’s what else you can grab:
Standard pricing applies ($1.99 or 160 MS Points each) and everything will be available at the usual times (Tuesday on 360, Thursday on PS3). Rock it out, friends. Rock it out.
Harmonix released a patch for Rock Band this week which allows you to export your RB1 songs to RB2. For $5, you can send 55 of the 58 songs from the RB1 disk onto your hard drive. The 3 songs missing? They’re good ones.
I play Enter Sandman and Run to the Hills a lot on drums. I guess I’d probably move on with Rock Band 2 coming, but it’s sad to see them not make it over. I’m sure the reason for Metallica not making it is the deal they have with Activision for Guitar Hero. But Run to the Hills and Paranoid? No idea. Hopefully real versions make it to Rock Band 2 so these covers become pointless.
Coming Soon!
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