It reads like so many rhythm/music game releases in the past — the ubiquitous track listleak. The Beatles: Rock Band is still a few months off from its September 9 release date but Ripten has gotten its hands on a leaked list of the possible tracks from the game (found after the break).
The list does include the three tracks we checked out in our hands-on with the game at E3, though it also looks an awful lot like a list of Beatles singles across their career. Ripten notes that the ten tracks found in the glorious opening to the game are all included in its leaked list — and it is approximately the same amount of tracks we know the game will be shipping with — though we’ve yet to receive any official confirmation or denial from MTV Games, Harmonix, or EA.
Update: A Harmonix spokesperson has confirmed to us that this leaked list of songs is definitely not the track list for The Beatles: Rock Band, saying, “The rumored ‘leaked’ list is not the disc track listing for The Beatles: Rock Band. We’ll be announcing more tracks throughout the summer. Stay tuned to thebeatlesrockband.com for the most up to date information about disc songs and downloadable content!”
The background image on the Beatles: Rock Band site has changed from a studio full of instruments to a reproduction of the set of the Ed Sullivan show from the Beatles’ American debut on February 9, 1964. Without the band present, it just looks like the show is really proud of that drum riser.
We’re currently checking with Harmonix to verify whether you can play on this set in the actual game. With all the work that went into modeling it, it would be pretty silly if it didn’t show up in the game. We would, then, also expect at least one of the songs performed at that “really big shew” to be playable: “All My Loving,” “‘Til There Was You,” “She Loves You,” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
Anecdotally speaking, the guitar teaching business has never been better for Bo Moore, a West Pennsylvania guitar teacher. Speaking with The Tribune-Democrat, he says, “We’re so busy right now, and I think these games have been a big factor behind it,” referring to the likes of Guitar Hero and Rock Bandinspiring young musicians to pick up the real thing after playing the plastic equivalent. Quick, somebody tell Prince to chill out!
Moore says he’s seen a 35 percent uptick in guitar lessons over the past two years, an increase he attributes to the mainstream ubiquity of Activision and EA’s rhythm-based music games. In fact, around 80 percent of the over 100 students currently enrolled with him have taken to the guitar.Unfortunately for those teaching other instruments, business hasn’t been so hot. Moore claims, from conversations he’s had with other teachers, that business is down if you’re not teaching the guitar. “We need more kids learning to play woodwind instruments … we need more piano players,” he says.The piece’s author opines that titles like “Xylophone Xanadu” might help to push kids into other instruments, though we all know Sitar Hero is going to be the one to do it.
If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times: Sneaking cameras into concerts is illegal, folks. And so it’s with sheer bravado that we’ve posted the Paul McCartney performance from two days ago at Coachella in California, playing “Got to Get You Into My Life” above. You’ll understand though — we had to — as you’ll see on the Beatles-sized screen behind Mr. McCartney some awfully interesting Rock Band-esque characters backing him up.
Though we can’t confirm anything, and there certainly aren’t any streaming note charts in sight, we’re going all the way out on a limb here and guessing the footage may be our first glimpse at The Beatles: Rock Band (again, sans gameplay). We’ve asked publisher MTV Games for confirmation and will update this post when we hear back.
Update: Thanks to commenter Comtar for pointing out official confirmation of The Beatles: Rock Band video during Mr. McCartney’s set at Coachella, via McCartney’s website: “It was a night of firsts and was the unexpected, unannounced world premiere of the images from the coming Beatle Rock Band game which played on vast screens throughout “Got To Get You Into My Life.” Looks like it wasn’t a rumor after all!
Okay, so it will be a Rock Band game. Apple Corps LTD., Harmonix and MTV Games have announced that rock music’s dream cast, The Beatles, will be reduced to multicolored note charts on 9/9/09, when the “The Beatles: Rock Band” launches worldwide on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii.
The “unprecedented, experiential progression through and celebration of the music and artistry of The Beatles” will allow players to tackle a cavalcade of culturally monumental songs via mic, drums and guitars, all included in a Limited Edition Premium bundle for $250 (all platforms) and “modeled after instruments used by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr throughout their career.” Standalone guitars will also be available ($100), as will separate game discs ($60, all platforms) for those already surrounded by Instrument Protagonist equipment. According to the press release, The Beatles: Rock Band will be compatible with all prior Rock Band instruments and “other current music-based game peripherals.”
And now we wait until September. God, we hope the lady behind the counter is named Jude. It’s going to be SO funny when we ask her to get us a copy.
For his latest Zero Punctuation review, renowned intertubes misanthrope Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw has cast his jaded eye over Activision’s Guitar Hero: World Tour.
Things start off well between reviewer and game (though Rock Band’s troubledrelationship with Australia undoubtedly has something to do with this) but Yahtzee soon finds assorted holes to pick at, with some of his targets including the pointlessness of Spanish language songs in an English language release, the new slide bar on World Tour’s guitars, and the game’s credentials as a karaoke simulator. Hit up The Escapist for the review in full or simply jump past the break.
Remember how Rock Band on the Wii landed in stores stripped of the downloadable content and online play seen in other versions? And do you also remember how Harmonix pinned the blame for this on the Wii itself? Well believe it or not, it looks like Harmonix may have found a way to include both in Rock Band 2. Why, it’s a goshdarn miracle! Or, y’know, it’s Harmonix being completelyshown up by Guitar Hero: World Tour and being forced to match Vicarious Visions’ efforts.
Wired’s Chris Kohler writes how Harmonix representatives at E3 promised him that the Wii edition of Rock Band 2 would be a “much more competitive product” compared to its lame predecessor and “fully featured.” Kohler reports that he “understood that this extended to things like downloadable content and online play.”
Alright, so it’s not exactly a cast-iron confirmation of DLC and online play, but at least Harmonix seems to be putting some effort in this time.
An anonymous source has informed Kotaku that Rock Band (remember that North America/Europe?) will finally launch in Australia this October, a whopping eleven months after the game hit the U.S.
But EA isn’t done sticking the boot into Oz just yet. According to the mole, the game won’t be available as an all-in-one package in Australia, but instead will come in two separate parts (the game itself, and an “Accessories Pack” containing a guitar, drums, and a mic), all of which will cost — wait for it — the equivalent of $350.
Obviously, because we all get paid about six million a year and spend our evenings lighting cigars with a wad of Benjamins, we doubt our resident Aussie will be too deterred. But man, we feel for the rest of you!
We know that many of you aren’t happy with Harmonix lately, but the company is making an honest effort to appeal to gamers in Japan. In fact, for the Japanese version of Rock Band, Harmonix is teaming up with Q Entertainment, who’s responsible for games like Lumines, Meteos, and Rez HD.
Hoping that Q Entertainment will add some eastern appeal to the game, Harmonix is aiming to completely localize it for Japanese audiences. Aside from the things that Q will bring to the table, this also means that the title will feature Japanese music and bands. Perhaps this will help Rock Band succeed in Japan where Guitar Hero couldn’t.
Now, if only Harmonix showed the same dedication to English-speaking Wii owners, we might not have such an uprising on our hands.
A final price and release date for Rock Band has been confirmed by developer Harmonix and publishers MTV Games and EA.
Final pricing and release dates for all the versions of Rock Band have been compiled in an easy-to-read bullet point list below.
By the way, Rock Band has not yet been confirmed for release on the Wii, but the developers have said that a Wii version is highly likely.
Rock Band Xbox 360
- Release Date: November 23rd, 2007
- Package: Wired Stratocaster guitar controller, Rock Band game, wired Drum Kit controller, wired Microphone controller and USB HUB.
- Price: $169.99
Rock Band PS3
- Release Date: November 23rd, 2007
- Package: Wireless Stratocaster Guitar controller, Rock Band game, wired Drum Kit controller, wired Microphone controller, no USB HUB. Instruments can be used with PS2 version.
- Price $169.99
Rock Band PS2
- Release Date: December 10th, 2007
- Package: Same as PS3
- Price: $159.99
Instruments will also be available for purchase separately, although release dates and pricing on the separate instruments have not been released yet and may not necessarily hit this year. You will also be able to get the game separately of course.
This new video shows the extensive character customization mode in the game.
Rumor: The Beatles: Rock Band track list leaked [update] originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
