Apple Corps LtdAll you need is love...and a video game console.
After months of negotiations, the Beatles finally have decided to go digital, licensing their songs to a Rock Band-like strum-along game from MTV Games.
"I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out," said Paul McCartney, calling the concept a "fun idea." "It's cool," added Yoko Ono.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but suffice it to say, buying the Beatles' love—or their songs—is not an inexpensive endeavor.
Both surviving band members, McCartney and Ringo Starr, signed off on the project, while Ono and Olivia Harrison also gave their blessing. The Beatles' company, Apple, and label, EMI, also approved.
It's a big score for MTV and Harmonix, who have been competing with Activision's rival game Guitar Hero, to say nothing of that other Apple and its Beatles-devoid iTunes store, to bring the Fab Four into the digital era.
Giles Martin, coproducer of the Beatles' Love project, will serve as the music producer of the game.
The Beatles are easily the biggest band to join the gaming world, but they are not the first to offer their tunes to the plastic instrument-wielding masses. AC/DC, Aerosmith, Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Sting and R.E.M. have all been welcomed into either Rock Band or Guitar Hero's pixelated fold this year.
The Beatles game, however, will be more than a "Rock Band expansion pack," according to MTV and Harmonix, instead serving as an "experiential progression" through the group's music, taking users from the Beatles' first album, Please Please Me, to Abbey Road.
Though no firm date has been revealed, the game is expected to be here, there and everywhere by Christmas 2009.
As Starr said today, "Let the games commence."