Is Harmonix actually developing the Wii version this time or or they being lazy and having a third party do it like all of the previous Wii versions of Rock Band?

Also, $250? Hahahahahaha, MTV Games must be high if they think many people will buy that. I hope it tanks. Every single Guitar Hero and Rock Band game has gotten more expensive than the previous ones.

As for the stand alone game being $60, I blame Apple Corps. They probably were so greedy that they charged a huge fee to license the songs and MTV Games passed that cost on to us.

I assume the premium edition bundle includes a bass, right?

The premium must include both guitar and bass, or else they're just completely insane.

I hope the game-only $60 price on Wii is a typo.  But I'll get the 360 version anyway (pending the track list) since that's where my RB2 is.

I doubt it (about a second guitar being in). I don't think any previous Rock Band or Guitar Hero bundles did (that's why I won't buy them, $180 is a ripoff either way but with only 1 guitar it's a even bigger rip-off).

But this is a game that specifically allows you to play as the Beatles.  Why would they pretend that McCartney didn't play an instrument?

After reading the press release it specifically states 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.  Notice that all four band members are listed.  I wonder if this will actually include two guitars and one bass (in addition to the world's smallest Rock Band drum kit)?  That would really make the game stand out from other games (besides, you know, the Beatles music).  ;)

If it's coming out on 9/9/09 it's gotta come out on the Dreamcast too.

That's a cool idea but it runs into one big problem.  When I got Guitar Hero: World Tour I figured I could try singing and playing at the same time using a mic stand.  I can do it in real life, right?  The problem is in real life you can write vocals and melody together in a way were someone who hasn't memorized the song can play it.  But these games as so specific with their notes that it's freakish to memorize it.  The only way I could ever do it is if I knew the vocals to the song absolutely perfectly.  So if you're playing guitar or bass while singing in this game you would likely be screwed unless you knew the words by heart.  Not so hard with Beatles songs though.

I figure the graphics on the screen will show the Beatles playing the appropriate instrument (hopefully including piano or sitar when it makes sense) and with the appropriate singer and you'll just have the standard four instruments.  Yeah playing bass while someone else is singing Paul's vocals might seem stupid in theory but in World Tour Jimi Hendrix does both vocals and guitar even if you have two different people doing that.

I'll get this for sure since it would be a game where I would literally like every song in the game.  I've never heard a bad Beatles song, just some aren't as good as others.  But it needs to work with the my Guitar Hero instruments.  I assume it will since Rock Band 2 does.

The Beatles are also possibly the only act where I can say that having an entire game dedicated to them makes sense.

This will be my first music game purchase, ever.

I was considering this game for purchase, especially with support for Guitar Hero controllers, but not at the $60 price point. I'll wait on it to go down.

There are a couple of stinkers on the White Album.

The only way I could see the Wii version being 59.99 is if something is included with it since the only Wii games that cost more than 50 include a peripheral.

Yeah, but I think the odds are really good they aren't going to put Revolution 9 in this game. ;)

Hate to break it to you guys


1UP asked MTV Games to comment on the pricing, but the company would only confirm the pricing in yesterday's announcement was accurate. The disc-only version of The Beatles: Rock Band will be sold at $59.99 on Wii.

"I don't think $60 will become the standard," said Pacific Crest Securities senior research analyst Evan Wilson to 1UP over e-mail. "Many games have actually started to go the other way -- launching at $40 instead of $50. They think the market will bear a higher price due to the attractiveness of the content."

As if releasing ports of older games on Wii wasn't enough, now they're trying to sell old music too? TOO MANY REHASHES!

You know what, guys? I blame the high prices not on EA or MTV Games, but on the band itself/

The Beatles are more than just a rock band. They are LEGENDS, with a career that has lasted more than 5 generations and has spawned movies, endless albums and many more related items. "Bigger than Jesus" is an understatement.

So I wouldn't be surprised that when approaching them in order to nab the songs, the look, the history and everything that could make the Beatles game the best experience ever they asked for a pretty big fee, and in order to meet the cost of development and licensing they had to raise the game's price.

Once more, we are dealing with an institution in music. Metallica and Aerosmith can't hold a candle to them.

Not just bigger than Jesus; much, much better too!

still a better deal than paying for them at 2 bucks a pop for DLC.

Remember, that was the statement that got him killed. I saw a special on how the guy who shot him was mentally ill and Beatles and Jesus were the only things that mattered in his life. When he heard that he had a mental war over who took precedence and snapped. It was an interesting show where they rated different criminals on a 'danger scale' of sorts based on mental condition and habits.

I wonder what the next exclusive big artist music game will be. Beatles is a huge one.

I think the only other band that deserves a full band game is Led Zeppelin. 

That's debatable since with DLC you can pick what songs you are interested in, with retail music games you're stuck with whats on the disc so you may like about  33 - 50% of the songs on the disc and then you might not even touch the rest which can be considered a bad value.

It is sad that they don't want to let one happen because they are very protective of their master tracks.

Though I tend to enjoy most of the stuff on the Rock Band and Guitar Hero main discs and I get exposed to a lot of music I normally wouldn't hear. So I think the disc cost tends to even out near the end.

Zepplin is far too EPIC to be contained by plastic instruments.  Plastic does not hold the fortitude for Achilles last stand, can your console sync with a guitar ORCHESTRA?  Can you imagine the set list?  You though 5 four minute songs were bad?  5 ten minute jams?  Inconceivable!  :)

Also, weren't the beatles a far more successful studio band?  These games normally show concerts, a live situation,  sure the early beatles stuff works in that context, but some of the later stuff uses the studio as an instrument.  How are they gonna illustrate that?  Plus I feel that the 4 instrument setup sort of fails to capture what mimicking the beatles would be like.  Pianos and keyboards become fairly prevalent, among string arrangements, in addition to the always present vocal harmonies, and playing a sitar is nothing like playing a guitar.  Not to mention it's gonna get pretty boring "playing ringo"  ;).  I'd say that this game has some pretty big boots to fit into!

p.s. top 3 beatles albums 1.Magical Mystery Tour (reminds me of earthbound) 2.Abbey Rd (The second half is the greatest thing to come from rock music) 3. Rubber Soul (nice stark mixing)

p.s.s it'd be pretty easy to get a couple of acoustic guitars and a drum set and learn all these songs too, nothing too hard!

That's why Konami had such an epic fail with Rock Revolution.
They could have brought their classic rhythm games over and one of them was a keyboard setup. I think that adding Keyboards should be one of the next steps in the musical instrument rhythm genre.

As already stated in this thread, though, The Beatles are a special case; I doubt there will be many (any?) "duds" on this disc. I don't even play Guitar Hero or Rock Band and I'm half-considering picking up this game.

Too bad some of the Beatles' best song were predominantly string-based..