Licensing megaton? Rock Band gets the Beatles

Written by Ryan Hewson

Thursday, 30 October 2008 05:58

According to the Wall Street Journal's well-connected Bothans, Viacom and MTV Games will be announcing today their acquisition of the rights to use Beatles songs in Rock Band. Since the Beatles seemingly invented pop music, this is no small get:

The Beatles have licensed songs to MTV Networks' Rock Band videogame series, according to several people familiar with the matter, a coup for the Viacom Inc. unit in its battle with rival Activision Blizzard Inc. for supremacy in the world of rock-and-roll videogames.
The deal, which is set to be announced on Thursday by Viacom's MTV and the band's own Apple Corps Ltd., makes the Beatles the next and biggest major band to license its songs to a music-oriented videogame, joining Aerosmith, Metallica, AC/DC and others.

I wasn't particularly amused when Activision started down the road of exclusively licensing certain marquee acts, because I knew Harmonix would have to follow suit (AC/DC) and we'd have a nice little balknization of music content across the two main franchises, just like Blu-ray and HD DVD all over again.

And maybe Activision is regretting it now as well since this sort of bites them in the ass. The Beatles. That's like having Superman on your side – if you're a Beatles fan, anyways. (If you're an Elvis fan, you still need to wait.)

UPDATE – ok so it's not Rock Band content (except when it is), but rather a new game... hrm.

(thanks mimc)

Comments (2) Add Comment

...
written by Dan Zuccarelli, October 30, 2008

I LOVE that Apple Corps outright said they were impressed with Harmonix and what they've done.

Also, mainstream press got a hold of this rather quickly. http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com...ml?cnn=yes

...
written by Mike "The Birdman"Dodd, November 01, 2008

Personally don't really care for this but will get it anyway so I can expand my music knowledge and learn something about this band .

Write comment

< Prev		Next >

Stalk Us

Staff

Editor-in-Chief - Jim Squires
Managing Editor - Daniel Lloyd
Founding Editor - Daniel Zuccarelli

Contributors
Bryan Wall
Holly Green
Lance Coviello
Marc Deangelis
Mark Peachey
Mike Dodd

The BBPS Sponsors

This is one of our favorite sports memorabilia sites on the web.

About Bloguin

Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics.

Advertisers

The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.

Most-Wanted List

The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site.. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.

The Bloguin Login

The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account!