Beatles Battle: Guitar Hero Versus Rock Band

Beatles representatives are in talks with Activision and MTV Games about creating a Beatles-themed game, according to a report on the Financial Times website.

A "person familiar with the talks" has apparently said that should a deal materialise it will be worth millions of dollars and could be reached in a matter of weeks.

Such a deal would have to be given the go-ahead by both Apple Corps, the company set up by The Beatles in the Sixties to look after its business affairs, and EMI, which owns The Beatles' master recordings. Beatles tracks have been notoriously sluggish in making it to new media, with the back catalogue having been slow to make it to CD - let alone making it to iTunes.

The "person familiar with the talks" is most likely Martin Bandier, chief executive of Sony/ATV, which owns the copyright to over 200 Beatles songs. An interview with Bandier in which he discussed the Beatles' catalogue also appeared on the FT website at around the same time. "It’s about making sure that the songs that we control are used in every manner, shape and form possible”, says Bandier of the catalogue, “and hopefully with good taste.”

While it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect the talks to simply be to get Beatles tracks into the next Guitar Hero and/or Rock Band games(s), the FT specifically states that the talks are "to create a Beatles-themed video game". For several million bucks, you would hope that one of the publishers will get the rights to use enough material to fill a full game. Such a game would, of course, be a major coup for either publisher. SPOnG's going to go out on a limb and say EVEN BIGGER that that of producing Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Call us crazy if you wish.

^{Source: FT}