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Even though John, Paul, George and Ringo have been rocking the disc tray of your favorite console with The Beatles: Rock Band, its expectation-exceeding sales haven't helped boost overall Rock Band sales. Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman told USA Today the "economics of our Rock Band franchise are improving, though not as quickly as we'd like." There's still hope that Rock Band could at least break even or show a small profit, though Viacom CFO Tom Dooley said that will depend entirely on the franchise's performance this holiday season.

Despite tanking sales, the music genre still remains one of the best in the industry and The Beatles: Rock Band shows us that the right approach could still determine financial success in the space. Its September debut was very fortuitous and it even managed to best Guitar Hero 5 in the US -- which not only came with a free game, but is also one of the most recognizable brands to the mainstream.

Source - USA Today
Source - Viacom earnings report

If Roger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who, has his facts straight, we could all be windmilling and smashing plastic instruments in a Who-themed Rock Band. Daltrey told The Republican when The Beatles: Rock Band was brought up that "The game, yeah, yeah, they're going to be doing a Who one next year. There is one planned." Daltrey called music "our last true great freedom."

As with Green Day, it could just be a Who pack for the existing games. Whatever it means, it involves playing the songs from one of the other most influential and rocking British bands ever in Rock Band, a prospect to which we can say only one thing:

Yeaaaaaaaah!

[Via RockBandAide; thanks, Sean!]

The patent suit brought by Gibson against Harmonix and other parties related to Guitar Hero and Rock Band was stayed due to the US Patent and Trademark Office deciding to reexamine the patent. According to Patent Arcade, Harmonix and a group of retailers have asked a Tennessee court to continue proceedings -- of the case against them.

Why is Harmonix engaging in this seemingly self-destructive (but not in the cool rock star way) behavior? When the USPTO looked into the patent again, it changed the definition of "musical instrument" to include the characteristics of being "adapted for making musical sounds" and "the instrument audio signal comprising an electrical signal output by the musical instrument that varies in response to operation of the instrument by the user of the system."

Harmonix apparently believes that because of this new definition, and because of the precedent set by Gibson's other case, against Activision, the case will go in its favor in the end. If the stay is lifted, Harmonix will then file a motion for summary judgment of non-infringement.

While the idea of getting wet at the movies doesn't sound all that great (wet clothes and air conditioning don't mix, people!), the prospect of a Wet movie is certainly something we can get behind. That's just what voice of Rubi Malone Eliza Dushku proposed during an interview with MTV, stating that the game "maybe could turn into a live-action Dushku vehicle."

Of course, it's best to keep in mind that there aren't any actual plans yet; Dushku isn't confirming things are in motion to make a live-action Wet film a reality, rather she wouldn't mind playing Rubi Malone in the film if it ever happens. We wouldn't mind it, either -- it'd give her a chance to make up for her underwhelming performance in the game.

Last year, U2 was apparently all set to add their virtual likenesses to Rock Band in some way, but the band decided against it. However, now that The Beatles have done it and people are playing their game on the morning talk shows, everything has changed.

"We definitely would like to be in there, but we felt some of the compromises weren't what we wanted," Adam Clayton told USA Today. "That could change. I love the idea that that's where people are getting music, and we'd love to be in that world."

Evidently the representation of the band was the issue the first time. "What The Beatles have done, where the animation is much more representative of them, is what we're interested in, rather than the one-size-fits-all animation. We didn't want to be caricatured." Fans looking forward to singing "Lemon" in an unlockable Mr. MacPhisto costume should be glad it's The Beatles: Rock Band the group saw, and not Guitar Hero 5.

[Via Kotaku]

If you plow halfway through The Beatles: Rock Band today, you'll notice that all the songs taking place in a studio setting (as opposed to The Ed Sullivan Show or Shea Stadium, for example) feature really lovely animations, which Harmonix calls "dreamscapes," inspired by the song they accompany. The developer tells us that the DLC albums arriving in the coming months will receive similar treatment.

"DLC songs which don't end up in historical venues will have custom dreamscapes, yes," said Dare Matheson Lead Artist on the game at Harmonix. "There will be visual themes and elements that will stretch from the on-disc dreamscapes into the DLC dreamscapes, but everyone is custom, unique, and fully-crafted for the song it will accompany. It's a bargain!" At the same $2-per-song price as regular 'ol Rock Band DLC, we can't help but agree.

In a real sense, debating the "fun" of The Beatles: Rock Band is a worthless exercise. As with other Rock Band games, how much fun you're having is directly proportionate to how much you enjoy the songs, and though you're absolutely entitled not to like The Beatles, it's pretty clear at this point in history that you'd be in the minority.

So, you'll find me talking largely in terms of presentation for this review, since (a) that's really the meat of what you're buying here and (b) it's absolutely, jaw-droppingly, top-to-bottom stunning.

Believe it or not, things weren't always going so well for Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchise developers Harmonix. Starting out in 1995 as a "music tech" company, founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy took four years of "misstarts and product concepts that never made it anywhere" before they had any success. Talking to CNN Money, the two detail five years of strange, misguided, or ill-informed ideas that eventually somehow lead to The Beatles: Rock Band.

First up: "The Axe," something that Rigopulos describes as "a joystick music improvisation system." In so many words, you moved the joystick around and various sounds were produced. Unsurprisingly, only 300 were sold -- "a horrendous failure that led to a painful lesson," Rigopulos says. "You can't really build a business on an entertainment experience that only keeps people entertained for 15 minutes." Second, the two tried breaking into the (at the time) $10 billion Japanese karaoke market ... and met with resounding failure once again.

Luckily for us, lessons learned overseas came back with the duo and Harmonix became a game company. Rigopulos and Egozy quickly changed their company's focus from "music tech" to "gaming," creating Frequency and Amplitude soon after. Though the games didn't directly lead to the financial success achieved later with Guitar Hero and Rock Band (GH didn't get off the ground until RedOctane approached Harmonix in the early oughts), both helped the now major developer to get a foot in the door.

Nothing says 'casual' like sitting down and watching a program dedicated to your hobby. Which is exactly why ex-MTV Europe boss Peter Einstein is working on bringing "Game Face" to Bravo, a show not about watching silly things like game reviews, previews, and interviews, but about watching the games themselves -- unfiltered, if you will.

"From what we've seen in the past a lot of the focus has been more outside of the games, with presenter reviews, stats, interviews with creators and only a bit about the games themselves – as one assumed that you only 'play' games you can't 'watch' them," Einstein told MCV UK. "We feel this concept provides a fun, entertaining TV event which is appealing mostly to the casual gamer." And us? We're not so sure that casual gamers are going to be on board for simply watching gameplay of games rather than, you know, playing them.

Matchbox Twenty front man Rob Thomas, currently promoting his second solo album, told The Cut Scene Blog that he "obviously" wants his music in Rock Band; however, he hasn't been asked. While Thomas admits he isn't much of a gamer, he does have an 11-year-old son who enjoys rocking out to MTV and Harmonix's latest music title.

"There's something great about watching [my son] playing a Pixies song with me on Rock Band," he said. Thomas added, while Rock Band showcases the familiar world of music to children, the game has the ability to expose younger audiences to a wide "assortment of music." According to Thomas (above, center) -- who has become known for using new technology to promote his work -- he would welcome the opportunity to make the jump into his son's game of choice. We always welcome new music into our music games, but Thomas needs to wait his turn. We're still waiting for Ghostbusters, for crying out loud.

You may not know this, but April is actually the biggest month of the year for banjo sales in the US. You see, the annual Jugband Jamboree takes place in April each year, across various states in the country, but nobody attended this year thanks to those darn Guitar Heroes, Rock Bands, and Singstars.

A new report (via GI.biz) came up with the data, based on research done by firm Interpret. In fact, aside from the staggering 25 million US gamers that got down with one music game or another, data showed that these gamers purchased 67% more CDs than those who didn't enjoy rhythm-based games. In addition, 29% of these wannabe rockers actually downloaded or streamed a music video in the past three months (compared to the 15% that partook overall), and 45% listened to music via a social network (versus 32% overall). So, as much as celebrities like to bash these kinds of games, it's helping more folks get into music, which, to us, is a good thing.

You might have already seen this at the MTV Movie Awards, but if you're the sort of person that's sworn off the MTV Movie Awards entirely (perfectly understandable) then we'd like to present Doubt: The Video Game as imagined by The Lonely Island. Check out the hot, 16-bit action after the break.

Interesting side note: This video was made in conjunction with Fatal Farm, the crew responsible for a bitching TimeShift ad and one of the funniest things on the whole internet.

"Have video games totally taken over your life? Is your game play increasingly getting out of control? Have your friends or family confronted you about your gaming habit? How about your marriage or personal relationships – are they being affected? Is it difficult to balance work and gaming time? Do you sometimes skip doing homework or household responsibilities to play? Have you played video games as a way of escaping your problems? Has your game playing habit become so encompassing that you may need to go to rehab to kick it? If you can identify with any of the above, MTV wants to hear from you." -- Actual MTV casting call, in verbatim.

While we agree video game addiction can be a problem, especially if it gets in the way of your social life, we doubt appearing on a MTV reality program is the best solution for shaking the habit. If you don't want your 15 minutes of fame, consider taking the Joystiq Two-Step Plan to Stop Playing Games™. Step one: buy Terminator Salvation. Step two: Play it. You'll learn to hate games in minutes! Pretty soon, you'll want to go outside and make friends -- all without the embarrassment of being on the same network as Tila Tequila. You can thank us later.

[Via Siliconera]

The background image on the Beatles: Rock Band site has changed from a studio full of instruments to a reproduction of the set of the Ed Sullivan show from the Beatles' American debut on February 9, 1964. Without the band present, it just looks like the show is really proud of that drum riser.

We're currently checking with Harmonix to verify whether you can play on this set in the actual game. With all the work that went into modeling it, it would be pretty silly if it didn't show up in the game. We would, then, also expect at least one of the songs performed at that "really big shew" to be playable: "All My Loving," "'Til There Was You," "She Loves You," and "I Want to Hold Your Hand."

This week's Wii Rock Band DLC offering delivers a stack of new tunes for the popular music game that spans multiple generations. Like last week, Haromix delivers 25 new tracks from the old school sounds of The Allman Brothers Band to the headbanging vibes of Disturbed. Regardless of your style, there is surely something for you then the tracks go live tomorrow (May 19). As usual, each track is priced at 200 Wii Points ($2). The full track list can be found after the break.