At least, according to this press release from @MajorNelson.  It says that starting tomorrow, “as an Xbox LIVE Gold member, you’ll get the chance to not only chat live with some of the creative minds behind “The Beatles: Rock Band,” but also call in to test your knowledge of the band and their music and even win some Microsoft Points for your efforts.  Immediately following, fans who can’t get enough can continue the fun with two back-to-back “1 vs 100 Extended Play” episodes full of Beatles trivia.”  I’ll post and send out further details as I get them (or let me know if you hear some before I do!)

[via @SaikoSakura]

Wow, it’s September 1st next week?! That means summer’s coming to an end. Boo! Well, let’s see if we can keep the summer heat going longer with these hot, hot DLC tracks (see what I did there)!

Xbox 360 and PS3:

• Talking Heads – “Take Me to the River”
• Talking Heads – “Once in a Lifetime”
• Talking Heads – “Girlfriend is Better”
• Talking Heads – “Crosseyed & Painless”
• Talking Heads – “And She Was”
• Rage Against the Machine – “Guerilla Radio”
• Oasis – “Supersonic”
• The Jam – “Going Underground”
• The Jam – “A Town Called Malice”
• Avenged Sevenfold – “Bat Country”

Nintendo Wii:

• Billy Idol – “Mony Mony”
• Billy Idol – “Rebel Yell”
• Fleetwood Mac – “Don’t Stop”
• Fleetwood Mac – “World Turning”
• Jet – “She’s a Genius”
• Tom Petty – “I Won’t Back Down”
• Tom Petty – “Runnin’ Down a Dream”
• Bare Naked Ladies – “Hanukkah Blessings” *
• Billy Squier – “Christmas is the Time” *
• Judas Priest – “(Take These) Chains”
• Judas Priest – “Bloodstone”
• Judas Priest – “Devil’s Child”
• Judas Priest – “Fever”
• Judas Priest – “Pain & Pleasure”
• Judas Priest – “Riding on the Wind”
• Judas Priest – “Screaming for Vengeance”
• Judas Priest – “The Hellion/Electric Eye”
• Judas Priest – “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’”
• Nikko – “Break My Heart” *
• Nikko – “Don’t Tell Me” *
• Pretenders – “Blue Christmas” *
• Pretenders – “Precious”

*Denotes $1.00 (100 Wii Points) per track

Rock Band: Unplugged – PSP:

• Franz Ferdinand – “Lucid Dreams”
• Guns N’ Roses – “Riad N’ The Bedouins”
  

[Harmonix Announcement]

I talked with Sean from Harmonix a few weeks ago at The Fest for Beatles Fans, and it didn’t sound like there would be Avatar accessories coming with The Beatles: Rock Band, but that might no longer be the case… at least according to the Xbox 360 avatar pic above.  It appears that we may have some Avatar accessories coming to us courtesy of The Beatles: Rock Band!   Since there’s nothing on the Avatar marketplace selling with The Beatles: Rock Band logo on it, it can safely be assumed that the t-shirt is probably obtained via an achievement within the game.  Only time will tell for sure… and we’re now within the 2 week window for the full release.  Almost there!

[via @SaikoSakura]

UPDATE 1: The avatar above belongs to @Godfree, of Gamertagradio.com, who may or may not have received an advance look at the game.  Lookin’ good there, Godfree!

UPDATE 2: Superstar @HazyCloud found a Microsoft press release from today saying that The Beatles: Rock Band will be made available along with the purchase of the game.  Nice find, sir!

Just got done reading Destructoid.com’s in-depth and screenshot-laden posting about their preview of the Rock Band Network.  The article basically takes the reader through everything they need to know about getting an artist’s original master tracks in to Rock Band.  As daunting as it looks, I believe once the Rock Band Network is out of closed beta, and the learning curve has been passed, you will see just about every artist clamoring to get into this thing (and subsequently making money).

If you don’t have the time to read the whole thing, here are some of the big take-a-ways:

• A patch will come out once the Rock Band Network is ready for go-live.  You’ll be able to search many different way to find songs (by artist, by genre, even by author), as well as through songs highlighted by Harmonix, top sellers, etc.
• The author/artist will set the price (now between $1 and $3… you won’t see many $3 songs unless it is a MAJOR artist).
• You can demo a song anywhere between 35% of the song’s length and 1 minute (whichever is shorter).  This demo option will however be unique to RBN songs; this does not include Harmonix-authored DLC.
• Songs must be created for the Xbox 360, however Harmonix will decide to port songs over to the PS3 at their and the artist/author’s discretion.  Wii owners, looks like you’ll get the short end of the stick again, as the hardware features will not allow for much of the RBN’s functionality.
• The Rock Band Network is tentatively slated for go-live in November.

[via Destructoid.com and Joystiq.com]

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Starting last Sunday, a over 800 Best Buys locations across the US were lucky enough to get a playable demo of The Beatles: Rock Band… or at least they were supposed to. Some people (myself included) ran into snafus where some stores did not get the demo disc in time for the event.  I was able to play at one store, and finally show my parents the game (who may also buy a copy because they’re such big Beatles fans).  Some people were lucky enough to take pictures of the event, which I promised to send out.  Check them out, below! Feel free to send in more pics and I will try and post some of them!

Haven’t been able to get a clear answer, but I believe a number of the locations still have the demo, so if you want to try it out and have not yet, give your closest Best Buy a call to see if they still have it.  More details on Best Buy’s page here, as well as their list of participating locations.

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And finally…

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Late last week, MTV Games VP Scott Guthrie mentioned to the press that “the Harmonix development team are working on what is effectively the next game, or ‘Rock Band 3.’”  I know a lot of people were getting excited when word of this came out at the end of last week. I was going to rush and post something quick, until I thought, “Why wouldn’t they be working on another game?”  If there were more specifics on it, i.e. perhaps a band-centric game following an English rock group from the 70s who sang about a stairway, I might be a little more excited.  You can find the link to one of the articles reporting this story, but since there were no specifics, there’s not really a whole lot to see here.

[via 1up.com]