Thursday, October 30, 2008

Beatles scramble onto games bandwagon

In something of a strange move for such digital refuseniks, the Beatles are rushing to have their precious, precious music slapped into a video game format - the Rock Band franchise, to be precise.

Given they took their time coming to CD and are still dragging their feet over downloads, the rush to get built into Wiis and PSPs is eyecatching and curious. Why so rushed, Macca?

“The project is a fun idea which broadens the appeal of the Beatles and their music,” McCartney said in a statement. “I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out.”

Ah. The 'broadening appeal' comment makes more sense than the 'inside out' one - after all, if McCartney really wanted people to know music from inside out, wouldn't there be lots of remix-y bits and pieces available online for them to do just that?

The rush to Rock Band is an early sign that Apple Corps is starting to try and cope with a declining franchise - the Beatles might still be gods to Oasis, but to a younger audience, they're starting to look a little bit like your Grandad's favourite band (and the Cirque Du Soleil hook-up hardly helped). The Beatles need Rock Band more than Rock Band needs the Beatles.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There was apparently something in Mojo last month about remasters of the album next year finally appearing. Do you think there's someone sitting around at EMI everyday going "wait for it.... wait for it... wait for it..." leaving everyone in the office in suspense for when they release the inevitable remasters with bonus tracks that all the other bands of the era released 10/15/20 years ago. As they wait for this man to do this they brainstorm crazy ideas like video games...

I'm really confused about the "I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out." How is a video game going to provide people with this sort of opportunity?

Spence said...

D'you reckon Ringo will sign my copy?

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