The Beatles: ROCK BAND - Rumors and Facts

[Sayburr]

Sept 15 - Added code to Misc section to view hidden pictures

An all in one place thread for information on The Beatles: Rock Band. This information was culled from multiple sources and is not to be taken as truth until a representative from Harmonix makes the statement that the information is reliable.

Official Web Site: http://www.thebeatlesrockband.com/

Release Information
World Wide Release was on 9/9/09

USA Pricing:
• The Beatles: Rock Band Software - Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii: $59.99 MSRP
• The Beatles: Rock Band Standalone Guitars - Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii: $99.99 MSRPOfficial: Press Release See controller section for more info
Bundles:
• The Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition Premium Bundle: Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii: $249.99 MSRP USA. Includes new Beatles instruments

Game Play
Stage Kit - The strobe light and the fogger do not work

The game does have cut scenes to pull together a sort of history of The Beatles to carry the game's narrative. http://www.thebeatlesrockband.com/preorderclub/

During the loading screens you will hear snippets of conversation between The Beatles.

Six-player co-op (three singers, drummer, bass, guitar); that playing on Easy difficulty automatically sets your track on no Fail; and that there’s a super-accessible No Fail toggle right on the song-select screens.Link

The game begins during the band's earliest days at The Cavern Club in
Liverpool, England. Gamers will then travel across the Atlantic to experience the band's unforgettable 1964 performance on The Ed Sullivan Show, the sold-out concert at New York's Shea Stadium in 1965, and conclude at The Beatles' memorable concert at Budokan in Tokyo, Japan in 1966. The Beatles' studio years will come to life in legendary Studio 2 at Abbey Road Studios. Highlighting the studio years are inspired artistic visual expressions known as Dreamscapes, intended to transport players to imaginative environments that capture the essence of The Beatles' genre-busting musical and fashion transformations during their later years. As an example the song “Here Comes the Sun” starts in the Abbey Road Studio and then fades into the band playing on a hilltop. The game follows The Beatles to 1969 where story mode culminates with their final performance on the rooftop of the Apple Corps Headquarters.

McCartney says players will find hidden features. “You've got the basic ‘Rock Band’ game with Beatles songs and then you have also got loads of goodies. If you get to a certain level, you get prizes -- photos, snippets and much more.” “You get interesting anecdotes” Often a wide variety and never before seen. They came from the Apple Corp Archives.

You can ONLY play at the Beatles, there is NO “create a rocker” in the game

---Game Modes
Online – Can play all the normal modes online like RB2 (tug of war, quick play, score duel) and it seems the Story Mode will also be playable online. Can have three vocalist, but all three must be using same console. Link

Quickplay – Jump right into the game and experience the fabulous music of The Beatles as all songs will be unlocked in this easy to access mode. Quickplay also features familiar competitive Rock Band modes Tug of War and Score Duel!

Story Mode – Set out on an experiential progression through The Beatles’ legendary career from The Cavern Club to Abbey Road Studios! The story mode takes you through the career in chapters and has an ending cinematic that is reminiscent of the movie Brian’s Song Link

Chapter Challenges – Master all of the songs from a single Chapter in the career of The Beatles with special challenges! These challenges essentially string all songs from the chapter togetherlink

Training Modes – Go beyond the basics and perfect your sound with training modes that includes Beatle Beats, Vocal Practice mode and more!
--------o Beatle Beats – Take on the stylings of Ringo Starr with this training mode that lets you practice actual drum beats from a selection of The Beatles catalogue
--------o Vocal Practice Mode – Train your ear and voice to master three part harmony! Use the guide pitch to help you sing hard to decipher parts perfectly in-tune!

The game will rely on realistic graphics to capture the mood and feel of the group, allowing players to see them mature both musically and physically as the game progresses. Unofficial: Link

---Singing
You can have up to three singers, which puts up multiple “tubes” when there’s more than one singer. If two singers nail a phrase’s harmony part, they earn a “Double Fab,” and successfully getting all three earns a “Triple Fab.” Drake …that “vocals are constructive, not destructive,” which means that you can only help your band’s score with good singing, but not hurt it if you don’t. Best of all, though, is the game software doesn’t expect one person to have the lead part and another specific mic to have a harmony. If the players switch places or go a phrase singing the same part, there’s no penalty. It just won’t help the group maximize its score. A single vocalist can choose to fly solo with the song, or for a real challenge, players can jump on to vocals and try to sing and play at the same time, much like the Fab Four did. link

Controllers
Our new guitars have an adjustment to their firmware. What does this mean? It means that you need to hold the start button/navigation button down for a little while to make it function. Why is this good? No more butter fingers accidentally pausing the game or bringing up the console navigation thing and stopping the music with their floundering. A win for all!

Singstar and Lipps mics can be used Video Link

Getting your drums into overdrive, now called Beatlemania, is no longer predicated on a freestyle overlay mode on the songs. Now a green stripe appears on the right most track which ends in a cymbal crash. Hitting that crash sets off Beatlemania.

Lennon's Rickenbacker 325 Peripheral and Harrison's Gretsch Duo Jet Peripheral are the other two styles of guitar and will be sold as stand alone controllers. Offical Press Release

From Official Press Release:
Limited Edition Premium Bundle includes:
• The Beatles: Rock Band software
• Höfner Bass controller: Large scale replica of the Bass famously used by Sir Paul McCartney
• Beatles-inspired and Ludwig-branded Rock Band 2 drums with classic pearl finish and vintage replica Beatles kick drum head. Plus, The Beatles Logo is Embossed on the pedal.
• Microphone
• Microphone Stand
• Additional special content
The Drums and Hofner Bass are NOT sold separately
Official

The game will be compatible with all Rock Band® instrument controllers, as well as most Guitar Hero® and other third party music video game peripherals and microphones. Official

Songs

Singles
I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Feel Fine
Day Tripper
Paperback Writer
Revolution
Don't Let Me Down

Please Please Me (1963)
I Saw Her Standing There
Boys
Do You Want To Know A Secret
Twist and Shout

With the Beatles (1963)
I Wanna Be Your Man

A Hard Day's Night (1964)
A Hard Day's Night
Can't Buy Me Love

Beatles For Sale (1964)
Eight Days a Week

Help! (1965)
Ticket To Ride

Rubber Soul (1965)
Drive My Car
I'm Looking Through You
If I Needed Someone

Revolver (1966)
Taxman
Yellow Submarine
And Your Bird Can Sing

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help From My Friends
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Getting Better
Good Morning Good Morning

Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
I Am The Walrus
Hello Goodbye

The Beatles (White Album) (1968)
Dear Prudence
Back In the U.S.S.R.
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Birthday
Helter Skelter

Yellow Submarine (1969)
Hey Bulldog

Abbey Road (1969)
Come Together
Something
Octopus's Garden
I Want You (She's So Heavy)
Here Comes the Sun
The End

Let It Be (1970)
Dig a Pony
I Me Mine
I Got a Feeling
Get Back

Love (2006)
Within You Without You/ Tomorrow Never Knows

Beatles fans will also be thrilled to hear previously unreleased authentic voice recordings from John, Paul, George and Ringo chatting between takes during studio sessions recorded at Abbey Road more than four decades ago

Giles Martin, the son of George Martin, who helped with the remixes on the LOVE project will serve as Music ProducerOfficial: Link

Martin says they plan on keeping the songs as close to the originals as possible, not doing a LOVE type remix. Official: Link game mixes for The Beatles: Rock Band will be completely unique for the game, separate from the remastered version of the Beatles catalog that will be released this September. link

DLC
Schedule:
All you need is Love will be made available exclusivly to Live, on 09/09/09 for $1.99, Until 12/09/2009, with money being donated to Doctors without borders.

Abbey Road - October 20
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - November
Rubber Soul - December
----- More info here

The entire catalogue might be stretching it a bit. I think we'll have a lot of the relevant and live music with four player band instrumentation. That being said, there's no fixed cap right now. We have a certain number of songs we're working on right now. Apple Corp has said they're interested in working and going forward, so we're hoping to do as much as they'll let us have. Link

DLC from “the Studio” years will contain dreamscapes

The Abbey Road Medley will be playable as one song for those buying the entire album

DLC will only work for TB:BR, it will NOT work for RB or RB2

Compatibility with Rock Band
For a variety of technical and artistic reasons it made much more sense to all involved to have TB:RB available as it's own game. The Beatles: Rock Band is simply a different game. I think if you ask people that got a hands on at E3 they'd tell you that this doesn't feel like a part of the RB universe. HMXHenry’s Post

The Beatles game is a stand-alone product that won't support song-swapping either to or from The Beatles: Rock Band link

Miscellaneous

Codes:
Enter quickly at the "The Beatles Rock Band" title screen (Press START button is at the bottom of the screen).
_____Blue, Yellow, Orange, Orange, Orange, Blue, Blue, Blue, Yellow, Orange: Unlocks set of bonus photos


Yes there is a code on the back of the manual. It doesn't do anything. It is our habit to serialize all our games like this.

iVideosongs [has] rights to allow it to sell video tutorials of Beatles songs taught by Giles Martin filmed at Abbey Road Studios. [They] already have a deal with Harmonix to put its tutorials on the main Rock Band site, and are in talks to do the same for Beatles: Rock Band. Wired

Digitally remastered versions of the band's catalog will be released worldwide on Sept. 9, the same day as the release of a video game, "The Beatles: Rock Band." - Link

The two surviving Beatles as well as the wives of the Beatles who are no longer with us have passed on their full blessings. Official: Link

5 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About The Beatles: Rock Band
1. Paul McCartney fact checked the entire game. Every Beatles fact, photo, and video has been reviewed by him for complete accuracy.

2. Every song in the Story mode has two photos that serve as rewards for your performance. The first one is awarded at 3 stars, and the second one at 5 stars – difficulty doesn’t matter. The photos are all rare, or never-before-seen.

3. The extremely hard to find The Beatles’ Christmas Album is included in the game, in its entirely as an unlockable.

4. This game wants to train you to be the fifth Beatle – there are 45 different tutorials for the vocal practice mode, and a whopping 86 different ones for the drum trainer, which is entitled Beatles Beats.

5. At the end of each song, long-time Beatles producer Sir George Martin tells the guys in the band (a.k.a. you) how well they performed on each track.

Bonus: In the Dreamscape for “I Am The Walrus,” the band is decked out in the same costumes that are on the cover of the Magical Mystery Tour album, which means that John is, actually, the walrus for the duration of the song. Link

[perricoach]

Harmonix, I'm sure you know this already, but you can't put out a Beatles game without having harmonies (2 microphones) as a core part of the gameplay. Just pointing out the obvious. Make this work, and the world will love you for it.

BEATLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! !!!!!!!

[Sargehalo51]

I can't wait for the release. I just hope and pray that, at some point, the games will be downloadable. But, I am sure we will have to wait a very long time for a solid answer (anything beyond rumor/speculation).

Either way, I will be making the purchase and playing The Beatles!

[ThePaska]

Thanks for compiling this, definitely necessary. Can't wait for this game, still can't believe it is said to only have 45 songs, that really isn't enough if you ask me. I wonder if it will have Beatles DLC or something later on!

Just went through their albums up to Abbey Road and could easily pick 100 good songs out, not sure if they would all hold up in a band oriented game, but they are all good songs thats for sure.

[Chris521]

so does that mean that there will be no way to export songs to rock band? "(The new game will NOT be branded with the Rock Band name. It is not an expansion pack for the Rock Band brand.)" I'm not into the beatles enough to buy this without that option. Oh well

[Firehouse66]

I sure hope the dates of the years of music are wrong. Nothing from the 70's??? That would mean that "Let It Be" will not make the cut?? Sinful.

[moneyp]

Really looking forward to this. I'm even happy about the long lead time, Get 'er done right.

[whofan]

I sure hope the dates of the years of music are wrong. Nothing from the 70's??? That would mean that "Let It Be" will not make the cut?? Sinful.

BAD!!! BAD! BAD!

"Let It Be" was actually recorded in 1969, PRIOR to Abbey Road. It just wasn't released until 1970.

Now, give me 20 roseyokos and 30 "Hail George"s and all will be forgiven.

[ThePaska]

I sure hope the dates of the years of music are wrong. Nothing from the 70's??? That would mean that "Let It Be" will not make the cut?? Sinful.

No Let It Be would stink.
That would mean we wont get:

Let It Be
Two Of Us
Dig A Pony
I Me Mine
The Long And Winding Road
Get Back


Does this mean we wont get songs from Hey Jude, like Hey Jude, Revolution, etc..? or does that fall under the 1969 recording as well?

[whofan]

No Let It Be would stink.
That would mean we wont get:

Let It Be
Two Of Us
Dig A Pony
I Me Mine
The Long And Winding Road
Get Back


Does this mean we wont get songs from Hey Jude, like Hey Jude, Revolution, etc..? or does that fall under the 1969 recording as well?

Okay, just for not reading the above post, you owe me 40 roseyokos and 80 "Hail George"s!!

"Let It Be" was recorded in 1969, not 1970. It was just released in 1970 to capitalize on the press surrounding the break-up.

"Hey Jude" is NOT a part of the official UK discography, hence the reason why it's never been released on CD. "Hey Jude" was a compilation of singles from around the end of The Beatles career.