Beatles Game Confirmed

This morning, MTV and Apple Corps confirmed pretty much exactly what everyone guessed yesterday: they're making a game that will feature the music of The Beatles. While the product in question hasn't been named specifically, it sounds like it will be a full, standalone game, and that it will be available sometime in 2009.

The Beatles are indisputably one of the most popular and influential musical acts of the 20th century, and Apple Corps has been fiercely protective of the catalog, so this is a pretty significant win for MTV and Harmonix. As one of the first big "TV bands," there's no shortage of iconic footage of the Beatles performing that could be a ton of fun to see in a game. Also, I'll be severely disappointed if there isn't a recreation of The Yellow Submarine's art style somewhere in there. As an aside, here's the five Beatles songs I'd like to see in, well, whatever the hell they end up calling this game:

Norwegian Wood
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Birthday
Helter Skelter
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

OK, so that's six. Believe me, it was hard enough to whittle that list down that far. This game's going to need a deep track list.

UPDATE: We've modified this story to reflect the fact that the press release never explicitly states that this will be a Rock Band game, only that MTV, Harmonix, and Apple Corps are working together on a game featuring the music of the Beatles. In fact, Billboard specifically says that this game will not be part of the Rock Band franchise, though it will be based off the same basic framework.