Posts Tagged ‘Beatles’

Here in the U.S., Thanksgiving is this Thursday, which means the epic capitalist holiday competition kicks off bright and early on the following day, also known as Black Friday. I have decided this year that I will purchasing ALL of my holiday presents this year online, and I will be nice and warm while the throngs of frugal shoppers stand in-line outside during the 16 degree forecasted weather for $3.00 toasters.

Here are the Rock Band related Black Friday deals that I have found thus far. I will update as I find more, but the Dell deal seems to be a pretty killer deal if you haven’t already picked up the game. If you need a Mustang, I recommend getting Dell’s bundle and giving Rock Band 3 to a family member/relative/friend as a present. More Rock Band 3 = more gooder for everyone!

• Dell: Wireless Fender Mustang Pro Guitar Controller Bundle w/Rock Band 3 (XBox 360) – $149.99
• Best Buy: The Beatles Rock Band (game only – all consoles) – $16.99
• K-Mart: The Beatles Rock Band (game only – all consoles) – $14.99
• K-Mart: Rock Band 2 (game only – PS3, possibly Xbox 360, Wii) – $9.99
• GameStop: The Beatles Rock Band (game only – PS3) – $14.99
• GameStop: The Beatles Rock Band (Limited Edition Bundle w/ Beatles instruments – Xbox 360) – $99.99

Today is the first birthday of The Beatles: Rock Band, which hit store shelves on 9/9/09. Even though no additional Beatles DLC is planned (but never say never), the game still gets an occasional playthrough by me as ITFB. (If you’re not familiar with this acronym, I= It’s, T= the, and B = Beatles… you figure the rest out.) While the game itself featured 45 songs, DLC added another 29 songs, for a total of 74. I have a feeling there will be a few people playing this game online today. Why not toss the game in today and play around with all the other Beatles and Rock Band fans?

More details in the RockBand.com thread here.

If any of you are planning a trip between now and the end of the year, you may want to take advantage of this deal. Desires Hotels, a collection of modern boutique hotels, is offering a promotion where if you stay for two nights, in addition to getting 10% off the bill, you’ll also receive a copy of The Beatles: Rock Band game. And if you’re really high rolling it and stay for three nights in a suite, you get the same 10% discount, but instead receive The Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition Premium Bundle (the “good” bundle)!  While I have never stayed at a Desires Hotel location, I have wined and dined in their amazing restaurant and bar in the lobby of the Iron Horse Hotel down the street from me here in Milwaukee, and can say that it is EASILY the nicest hotel in the city. And if you’re not going anywhere soon, but still have a location near you, come on in for The Beatles: Rock Band Happy Hour at participating Desires Hotels!

Go HERE for all the details on taking advantage of this deal!

Last month, the website for The Beatles: Rock Band won an award at the 14th Annual Webby Awards  as Best Games-Related Site of the year. The site was produced by the web development team at Harmonix in collaboration with Apple Corps, The Beatles’ company.

In addition to the craziness of E3 going on last week, the Webby Awards were held on June 14 in New York City.

“The Webby Awards honors the very best of the Internet,” said David-Michel Davies, executive director of the Webby Awards. “Harmonix’s achievement is a testament to the skill, ingenuity and vision of its creators.”

“We are excited and honored to have TheBeatlesRockBand.com win the Webby Award for Best Games-Related Website,” said Jeff Chausse, Harmonix’s web director. “We wanted to capture the artistry and magic of the game on the web, and this award is further confirmation that Harmonix has created a truly unique celebration of The Beatles’ music, which has really captured the public’s imagination.”

Founded in 1996, The Webby Awards are known worldwide for its famous five-word speech limit. Past Webby Award winners – and their speeches – include Al Gore (“Please don’t recount this vote”), Beastie Boys (“Can anyone fix my computer?”), and Stephen Colbert (“Me. Me. Me. Me. Me.”).

Check out the five-word acceptance speech from Jeff below.

Harmonix was nominated this year in the category of Games-Related Website for The Beatles: Rock Band website. For those not familiar, the Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996 during the Web’s infancy, the Webbys are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which includes an Executive 750-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities, and Associate Members who are former Webby Award Winners and Nominees and other Internet professionals.

The Academy is an intellectually diverse organization that includes members such as musicians Beck and David Bowie, Internet inventor Vint Cerf, political columnist Arianna Huffington, Real Networks CEO Rob Glaser, “The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening, R/GA Founder and Chairman Robert Greenberg, Virgin Atlantic Chairman and Founder Richard Branson, and The Weinstein Company Co-Founder Harvey Weinstein. Members also include writers and editors from publications such as The New York Times, Wired, Details, Fast Company, Elle, and The Los Angeles Times.

The Webby Awards presents two honors in every category — The Webby Award and The People’s Voice Award — in each of its four entry types: Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video and Mobile Web. Members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences select the nominees for both awards in each category, as well as the winners of the Webby Awards. While the Harmonix web team didn’t capture the People’s Voice Award, they did capture the much more prized Webby Award, which is voted on my the luminaries mentioned above.

Congratulations to everyone on the Harmonix web team!

[Webby Award]

Harmonix Senior Artist Kevin McGinnis spoke last week at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) about the user interface in the Beatles: Rock Band.  Based on what he talked about, it wasn’t something that came together easily.  From Joystiq:

McGinnis talked about the different concepts the team had tried — they first attempted to do a very clean, serene respectful version of the menus, but then decided to go much more colorful. They hired a few artists to build the menus up into actual 3D spaces (after accidentally telling Apple Corps that yes, the menus would all be animated), and McGinnis even showed off the 3D model that the camera zooms around in to guide the player into the game.

Head on over to Joystiq to take a trip through a huge gallery (60+) of images from the user interface design discussion.