NOTE – Post Updated: Before this was labeled as though “Rock Band” had signed The Beatles. After a live conference, it turns out this partnership is bigger than just a standalone disc ala AC/DC style. From Wired’s Game|Life Blog:

The original post left untouched is below:

In the war of Guitar Hero vs Rock Band, Harmonix, using the MTV Networks connections and probably some of EA’s money, has secured possible one of the biggest bands ever… The Beatles.

The rumor was put out sometime during the day yesterday, however Wall Street Journal has given the actual confirmation, and even helped educate any of you who may not know how these music based games work:

“The games let players use plastic game controllers, shaped like miniature musical instruments, to simulate playing rock and pop songs. Players are scored on how well they hit notes.”

Now you youngin’s might not know the band, but that is okay, just know that with this announcement will come some EA stock rising and a crapload more units of Rock Band being sold (and possibly more PS3s, 360s, and Wiis, seeing as how their core fanbase might not own such items).

Expect a full on major announcement sometime later today with full press release action. I don’t want to make too many assumptions on this deal just yet, but I am going to guess that DLC just won’t do, this might be another full standalone disc ala AC/DC Rock Band.

An interesting note, The Beatles (or really Apple Corps Ltd) have shown no love for iTunes or any other form of digital downloading, yet now are having the music available for video game use. At the least their songs will finally be heard by a younger audience who may have never been able to appreciate the band musically without thinking of their songs used in commercials/movies. While an older audience might start recognize video games as a viable form of media in the same vein has movies/tv/music (most grandparents still see this stuff as just toys).

Now time to start the wish lists. For the love of all things holy, all I want is Come Together. So much to choose from though, what else would be good?

Popularity: unranked [?]