The Beatles: Rock Band

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According to The Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122531701276881747.html

The Beatles have licensed songs to MTV Networks' Rock Band videogame series, according to several people familiar with the matter, a coup for the Viacom Inc. unit in its battle with rival Activision Inc. for supremacy in the world of rock and roll video games.

The deal, which is set to be announced Thursday by Viacom's MTV and the band's own Apple Corps Ltd., makes the Beatles the next and biggest major band to license its songs to a music-oriented videogame, joining Aerosmith, Metallica, AC/DC and others.

Rock Band and Activision's Guitar Hero have engaged in heated competition over exclusive rights to use music by major acts.

The games Rock Band and Guitar Hero let players use miniature plastic game controllers, shaped like musical instruments, to play along with recorded rock and pop songs to test the players' level of skill. The game publishers have entered a handful of multimillion-dollar licensing agreements with some of the biggest names in the business.

The Beatles represent by far the biggest prize to date in the category. Not only do they have the best-selling album catalog any band, they have not yet licensed their music for sale by download services such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store.

Key details could not be learned, such as whether Rock Band is creating a special Beatles-only title, as Guitar Hero has done with Aerosmith and others; which songs or how many of them are to be included; or a release date or price. Rock Band is a product of Harmonix, a division of MTV.

Spokesmen for Apple Corps and EMI Group Ltd., the Beatles' record label, could not be reached immediately. A spokeswoman for MTV declined to comment.

Write to Ethan Smith at ethan.smith@wsj.com, Nick Wingfield at nick.wingfield@wsj.com and Sam Schechner at Sam.Schechner@wsj.com

Official announcement tomorrow!!