Posts Tagged ‘Beatles’

If any of you are planning a trip between now and the end of the year, you may want to take advantage of this deal. Desires Hotels, a collection of modern boutique hotels, is offering a promotion where if you stay for two nights, in addition to getting 10% off the bill, you’ll also receive a copy of The Beatles: Rock Band game. And if you’re really high rolling it and stay for three nights in a suite, you get the same 10% discount, but instead receive The Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition Premium Bundle (the “good” bundle)!  While I have never stayed at a Desires Hotel location, I have wined and dined in their amazing restaurant and bar in the lobby of the Iron Horse Hotel down the street from me here in Milwaukee, and can say that it is EASILY the nicest hotel in the city. And if you’re not going anywhere soon, but still have a location near you, come on in for The Beatles: Rock Band Happy Hour at participating Desires Hotels!

Go HERE for all the details on taking advantage of this deal!

Last month, the website for The Beatles: Rock Band won an award at the 14th Annual Webby Awards  as Best Games-Related Site of the year. The site was produced by the web development team at Harmonix in collaboration with Apple Corps, The Beatles’ company.

In addition to the craziness of E3 going on last week, the Webby Awards were held on June 14 in New York City.

“The Webby Awards honors the very best of the Internet,” said David-Michel Davies, executive director of the Webby Awards. “Harmonix’s achievement is a testament to the skill, ingenuity and vision of its creators.”

“We are excited and honored to have TheBeatlesRockBand.com win the Webby Award for Best Games-Related Website,” said Jeff Chausse, Harmonix’s web director. “We wanted to capture the artistry and magic of the game on the web, and this award is further confirmation that Harmonix has created a truly unique celebration of The Beatles’ music, which has really captured the public’s imagination.”

Founded in 1996, The Webby Awards are known worldwide for its famous five-word speech limit. Past Webby Award winners – and their speeches – include Al Gore (“Please don’t recount this vote”), Beastie Boys (“Can anyone fix my computer?”), and Stephen Colbert (“Me. Me. Me. Me. Me.”).

Check out the five-word acceptance speech from Jeff below.

Harmonix was nominated this year in the category of Games-Related Website for The Beatles: Rock Band website. For those not familiar, the Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996 during the Web’s infancy, the Webbys are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which includes an Executive 750-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities, and Associate Members who are former Webby Award Winners and Nominees and other Internet professionals.

The Academy is an intellectually diverse organization that includes members such as musicians Beck and David Bowie, Internet inventor Vint Cerf, political columnist Arianna Huffington, Real Networks CEO Rob Glaser, “The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening, R/GA Founder and Chairman Robert Greenberg, Virgin Atlantic Chairman and Founder Richard Branson, and The Weinstein Company Co-Founder Harvey Weinstein. Members also include writers and editors from publications such as The New York Times, Wired, Details, Fast Company, Elle, and The Los Angeles Times.

The Webby Awards presents two honors in every category — The Webby Award and The People’s Voice Award — in each of its four entry types: Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video and Mobile Web. Members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences select the nominees for both awards in each category, as well as the winners of the Webby Awards. While the Harmonix web team didn’t capture the People’s Voice Award, they did capture the much more prized Webby Award, which is voted on my the luminaries mentioned above.

Congratulations to everyone on the Harmonix web team!

[Webby Award]

Harmonix Senior Artist Kevin McGinnis spoke last week at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) about the user interface in the Beatles: Rock Band.  Based on what he talked about, it wasn’t something that came together easily.  From Joystiq:

McGinnis talked about the different concepts the team had tried — they first attempted to do a very clean, serene respectful version of the menus, but then decided to go much more colorful. They hired a few artists to build the menus up into actual 3D spaces (after accidentally telling Apple Corps that yes, the menus would all be animated), and McGinnis even showed off the 3D model that the camera zooms around in to guide the player into the game.

Head on over to Joystiq to take a trip through a huge gallery (60+) of images from the user interface design discussion.

Not exactly the Beatles: Rock Band announcement we’ve all been waiting for, but after what seems like an eternity to all the Wii and PS3 players out there, Harmonix has finally announced this morning that the two consoles will be getting the Beatles: Rock Band DLC track “All You Need is Love.”  It will be available on the Wii on Feburary 16th, and the PS3 on March 4th for $1.99.

For you guys that own the Beatles: Rock Band on the Wii and PS3, will you be picking this track up?

[Official announcement]

Since the release of the Beatles: Rock Band on the Xbox 360, Microsoft has been running a promotion with MTV Games and Harmonix where a portion of each sale of the Beatles “All You Need is Love” DLC track is donated to the charity Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

“We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of people around the world who have contributed to us through the download of “All You Need Is Love” and the sales of the one-of-a-kind Xbox console [see above],” said Dr. Matthew Spitzer, president of the Board of Directors for MSF-USA. “It is because of funds generated from initiatives such as this that MSF was able to respond to the Haiti earthquake so quickly, providing urgent lifesaving medical care immediately in the aftermath.” he added. “With your continued support, we will be able to carry on our medical work in more than 60 countries to assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe. On behalf of our patients, MSF says ‘Thank You.’”

MSF has been working in Haiti since 1991, responding to emergency medical needs and ongoing medical crises in the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Because MSF was already running programs in Haiti when the earthquake struck – with over 800 staff already on the ground—the organization was able to quickly mobilize in the immediate aftermath of the January 12 earthquake. Staff members set up emergency triage centers and began treating people with major trauma wounds, fractures, and crush injuries. An inflatable MSF field hospital equipped with two operating theatres has been set up and is currently running, and MSF cargo planes loaded with emergency personnel and supplies have reached the country. To date, MSF is running 15 hospitals in and outside of the capital, has treated over 6,000 patients, and has conducted nearly 1,000 surgical operations. MSF’s work, such as their immediate response to the Haiti earthquake, is made possible by unrestricted private donations to the organization. With the support of donors, MSF has been, and will continue to be, able to provide the best possible medical care for the people who need it most.

From the sale of each download, 112 MS Points (or $1.40) was donated to Doctors Without Borders.  The promotion ends on January 31, 2010, so if you still haven’t purchased it, go get it NOW! Not only will you potentially be helping the people of Haiti, but you will also be getting a classic track from the Beatles. In addition to downloading “All You Need Is Love” on Xbox LIVE, supporters are encouraged to visit the MSF web site here if they are interested in donating.