Rock Band at Gamescon 2009: Three Beatles albums and songs coming from Queen, Nirvana, Tom Petty and more

by: Dan - posted: 8/20/2009 5:51:00 AM

Yesterday at Gamescon 2009, Harmonix and MTV Games made several major announcements for the Rock Band franchise. The first involved pricing and availability of a previously announced DLC song for The Beatles: Rock Band as well as what Beatles albums would be available via DLC. The song "All you need is Love" will be available on 9/9/09 for a limited time as an exclusive The Beatles: Rock Band song for $1.99 or 160 MS points.

As for the three Beatles albums, Abbey Road (previously announced) will be released on October 20th with costs of $16.98 (1360 MS points) for the entire album or $1.99 (160 MS Pts) per track. As a bonus, those that purchase the entire album get the 16 minute B-side medley (one long continuous track) that includes snippets from “You Never Give Me Your Money,” “Sun King,” “Mean Mr. Mustard,” “Polythene Pam,” “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight” and “The End."

The other two albums will be Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Nov 2009) and Rubber Soul (Dec 2009). No pricing was announced, but it will probably be similar to Abbey Road.

The other exciting news was the arrival of new tracks by some great bands that haven't had much of a presence in the Rock Band franchise yet. I wrote an article about this late last year, and several of my hopefuls will be coming. Announced yesterday (but without specific titles or quantity) were tracks upcoming from Queen, Nirvana, Tom Petty, Elton John, Iggy Pop, The White Stripes, Pantera, Talking Heads, Korn and The Raconteurs.

As I told Chuck when I saw the release....time to stock up on MS points.

Harmonix and MTV Games Make
Major Music Announcements at Gamescom 2009

Details for the Three Downloadable Albums Coming to
“The Beatles™: Rock Band™” Music Store Revealed

“All You Need Is Love” Available on 9/9/09 for $1.99

Tracks from Queen, Nirvana, Tom Petty, Elton John, Iggy Pop,
The White Stripes, Pantera and More Coming Soon to the “Rock Band™” Platform

Rock Band Catalog Surpasses 800 Songs Available to Date
Scheduled to Hit 1000 Songs by Holiday 2009

Cologne, Germany – August 19, 2009 – Speaking at Gamescom 2009, Alex Rigopulos, CEO and cofounder of Harmonix, the world’s leading developer of music-based games and a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), today confirmed release details for the three Beatles albums that will be available for purchase as downloadable content in The Beatles™: Rock Band™ Music Store by the end of this year. Abbey Road will be released on October 20, 2009, followed by the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in November and Rubber Soul in December.

Additionally, Rigopulos revealed that tracks from Queen, Nirvana, Tom Petty, Elton John, Iggy Pop, The White Stripes, Pantera, Talking Heads, Korn, The Raconteurs and more will be among the artists coming to the various offerings across the Rock Band™ platform. With over 800 songs available to date via the Rock Band catalog and 1000 by end of 2009, the billion dollar selling and genre-defining Rock Band franchise continues to be the gold standard in music video games by completely dominating its closest competition with its massive music library, weekly downloadable content and artist offerings, innovation, and superior gameplay (Rock Band 2 average metacritic score: 92). With its leadership stance on music game peripheral compatibility, disc and DLC export, the recently announced Rock Band Network and the upcoming The Beatles: Rock Band, music fans will need to look no further than the Rock Band platform to satisfy all their music video game appetites.
Details for downloadable albums coming to The Beatles: Rock Band Music Store are as follows:

Abbey Road (1969)Release Date: October 20, 2009
Pricing: $16.98 (or 1360 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for album
$1.99 (or 160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for individual tracks

· “Come Together”
· “Something”
· “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”
· “Oh! Darling”
· “Octopus’s Garden”
· “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”
· “Here Comes The Sun”
· “Because”
· “You Never Give Me Your Money”
· “Sun King”
· “Mean Mr. Mustard”
· “Polythene Pam”
· “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window”
· “Golden Slumbers”
· “Carry That Weight”
· “The End”
· “Her Majesty”

In addition, purchasers of the full album download of Abbey Road will have the option to play the famous 16-minute B-side medley as a single continuous track. The medley includes “You Never Give Me Your Money,” “Sun King,” “Mean Mr. Mustard,” “Polythene Pam,” “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight” and “The End."
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)Release Date: November 2009

· “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
· “With A Little Help From My Friends”
· “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”
· “Getting Better”
· “Fixing A Hole”
· “She’s Leaving Home”
· “Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite”
· “Within You Without You
· “When I’m Sixty Four”
· “Lovely Rita”
· “Good Morning Good Morning”
· “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)”
· “A Day In The Life”


Rubber Soul (1965)Release Date: December 2009

· “Drive My Car”
· “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”
· “You Won’t See Me”
· “Nowhere Man”
· “Think For Yourself”
· “The Word”
· “Michelle”
· “What Goes On”
· “Girl”
· “I’m Looking Through You”
· “In My Life”
· “Wait”
· “If I Needed Someone”
· “Run For Your Life”

As previously announced, “All You Need Is Love” will be released Sept.9, 2009 for the standard Rock Band DLC pricing of $1.99 (or 160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360), exclusively through Xbox LIVE for a limited time as a downloadable song for The Beatles: Rock Band, with Apple Corps Ltd, MTV Games, Harmonix and Microsoft proceeds benefitting Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

The Beatles: Rock Band downloadable content will be available for purchase on the Xbox®LIVE Marketplace for Xbox 360, PlayStation®Network and via the in-game The Beatles: Rock Band Music Store for Wii™ using Wii points purchased through the Wii Shop Channel.