The Beatles video game being developed by MTV Networks owned Harmonix now has a name and release date. The game, Beatles: Rock Band will hit store shelves September 9 of this year, or the advertising friendly 9/9/09.
The announcement that the game will utilize the company's Rock Band franchise name is somewhat of a surprise, with both MTV and Apple Corps saying last year that the game would be a standalone, and not a spinoff of the popular music series.
Of course, sales of music games such as Rock Band and Activision's Guitar Hero have been struggling this year, after two years of seemingly unstoppable growth. By putting the Rock Band name on the game, MTV has the benefit of attracting that game's loyal customers, while still reaching out to gamers that haven't yet purchased a game from the franchise. Games like Rock Band feature players picking up controllers that are fairly realistic replicas of the instruments, and lets them jam along to their favorite songs.
The Beatles game will feature peripherals modeled after instruments used by the Fab Four during their career.
