Beatles to come back to life on consoles next September

AFP - The Beatles will live anew in videogame glory beginning in September with the release of an exclusive "Rock Band" title that lets people pretend to be the legendary Fab Four.

The band's music label, Apple Corps, has veered from its aversion to digital distribution of music by working with Harmonix and MTV Games to create "The Beatles: Rock Band" slated to hit stores around the world on September 9.

Its creators promise that the game is "an unprecedented, experimental progression through and celebration of the music and artistry of The Beatles."

MTV Games had the title developed by US studio Harmonix, the maker of the hot-selling "Rock Band" videogames in which players using mock instruments as controllers win by keeping in tune with music and on-screen note cues.

Accessories sold along with The Beatles videogame will include faux instruments modeled after ones used by band members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

McCartney and Starr, the surviving members of The Beatles, revealed in October that their songs will take on new lives in a videogame that lets people play out fantasies of being the world-changing 1960s British rockers.

"The project is a fun idea which broadens the appeal of The Beatles and their music," Sir Paul McCartney said in a release when plans for a game were announced. "I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out."

The game will mark the first time the iconic band's music is featured in a videogame.

It was initially envisioned as a stand-alone title, but it was later decided it was shrewder to make it a special edition in the popular "Rock Band" franchise.

The concept for the videogame was honed with input from McCartney and Starr as well as from Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison.

"It's cool," Yoko Ono said in October. "I love it and hope it will keep inspiring and encouraging the young generation for many decades."

The videogame is the band's long-awaited debut in the Internet Age because the surviving Beatles and their multimedia company have long resisted selling their music online in digital formats out of piracy concerns.

Versions of the videogame will be available for play on the three major consoles: Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, and Nintendo's Wii.

The game software will be priced at 60 dollars a copy in the United States and Beatles guitar controllers will have price tags of 100 dollars each.