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Rock Band 2 screenshot

VideoGamer.com: Moving on... we've had some pretty exciting news....

DT: That's right, we've just announced that MTV, Harmonix and Apple Corps are working on a Beatles game for release in Q4, 2009.

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VideoGamer.com: But this is a standalone game, right?

DT: This is a standalone game. The big thing is that this isn't Rock Band Beatles. This is a new game that covers the whole of The Beatles' journey. It's a way for both people who haven't heard The Beatles' music to get in and experience it, and it's a way for those who already are Beatles fans, which is a lot of people, to go through and to experience their catalogue and their legacy in a new way.

VideoGamer.com: So how long have you been working on this?

DT: We've been working on it for 17 months. One, it's amazing to be able to talk about it, and secondly it's amazing that it hasn't leaked! We're so happy that we able to keep it under wraps.

VideoGamer.com: What kind of percentage of the Beatles' back catalogue is set to feature in the game?

DT: We're not talking specifics about tracks or gameplay or anything like that, but the best way for us to answer that is to say that it'll cover the entire breadth of The Beatles' catalogue.

VideoGamer.com: Let's go back to Rock Band, then. You spoke a bit about online features earlier. What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of being able to use online functionality in a game like this?

DT: I think the biggest thing for us is that it gives us a way to distribute new stuff every week. We already had a multiplayer experience in the living room, so being able to bring that online - even though it's pretty amazing that we can have a zero lag experience - that's a pretty natural progression for us. Whereas being able to release new songs and albums every week on the music store - it just continues your experience with Rock Band. You don't put it away in a cupboard somewhere, you play it every week with your friends.

VideoGamer.com: Is there anything you've not been able to do with a Rock Band game, that you'd like to? You know, a sort of 'Holy Grail' of the genre?

DT: I think the biggest thing, as I've said, is player expression: finding a way for people to express themselves without sounding horrible is a challenge - but it's a challenge outside of games as well, in term of music recording software and less console-specific stuff. So that's something we'd love to find a way to solve. How to not only play music that's from some of the biggest bands in the world - or the biggest up-and-coming bands - but to also let people find their style and express themselves.

Rock Band 2 will be released in the UK on November 21.

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