As you probably know, the Beatles are one of the last hold-outs from licensing their music for iTunes. But they have agreed to use their music for a new video game, a partnership between MTV Games and Harmonix, creators of the "Rock Band" series. The surviving members of the Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Beatles widows' Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, will be involved in the game's creative planning.

"This game will take you on a journey from the Beatles' first album Please Please Me until the last album at Abbey Road," Jeff Jones, CEO of the Beatles' Apple Corps label, announced in a conference call yesterday. "It will span samples of the whole catalogue all the way through."

The music will be culled from the master recordings of the Beatles' UK releases, with any additional music production overseen by George Martin's son, Giles, who as you remember, co-produced the Beatles/Cirque du Soleil show, LOVE.

No suprise that there's an "unusual licensing deal" being inked for the game, with each party owning a piece of the project. Does this mean a licensing deal with iTunes can't be far behind?

Via the Guardian.