Alex Rigopulos, CEO and co-founder of Harmonix Music Systems, spent seven years at MIT studying computer science and music composition. He decided to combine those two things with videogames and started Harmonix with fellow MIT student Eran Egozy. From their early days, Harmonix broke new ground in the fusion of games and music with titles like Frequency, Amplitude and Karaoke Revolution. But it was the original Guitar Hero that his team created for Red Octane that really catapulted the music gaming genre into the upper atmosphere.

After being purchased by MTV Games after Guitar Hero 2, Harmonix created a full band experience with Rock Band. Now, they’re hoping to bring in even more non-gamers with the third Rock Band game. But they’re getting a little help from a little band called The Beatles. Rigopulos talks about The Beatles: Rock Band in this exclusive interview.

Can you explain who you worked with from The Beatles and how the process for this game played out?

All of the Apple Corps “shareholders,” meaning P, as well as the senior executives at Apple Corps, were actively involved in the creative direction of the game, from the broad strokes conception at the beginning of the project to the fine details near the end.

Just how involved were they in its creation? It seemed from the Xbox E3 Press Conference that they're definitely not gamers...

No, they’re not gamers, but that’s not where we needed their guidance. What we really needed was creative collaboration on how to most effectively and genuinely capture the spirit and power of the Beatles in the game, and the shareholders were all generous enough with their time to provide this guidance in abundance. This included everything from helping to select the track list, to helping shape the visual design and representation of the band, to helping craft the historical narrative. The game came out far better as a result than it possibly could have if they hadn’t been involved.

What makes this game different from Rock Band, Guitar Hero or any other music game?

Well, first of all, it’s The Beatles! I know, it’s stating obvious, but this is the first time this music has been released in interactive form, and I think people are going discover treasures in these songs that they’ve never noticed before. (That was certainly the case for me.) We’re bringing to music games the ability to sing harmonies for the first time here. It was essential to add this feature, really, considering how important harmonies were to the Beatles’ sound. Most people don’t have any experience with singing harmony, but it’s surprising how quickly people learn to do so through the game (and the included vocal trainer), and it’s been amazing to watch how positively people respond to it! There’s also a deep Story Mode that takes players on a journey through the history of the band, complete with unlockable Beatles photos and other assets that Beatles fans are sure to love.

Have you developed this game to be more accessible to the Boomers who grew up with the Beatles?

Yes, there are a number of design tweaks aimed at accessibility. For example, the “No Fail Mode”, which we first introduced in Rock Band 2, is included again here, but made much more convenient (and automatically turned on for “Easy” difficulty). This will make it much easier for Boomers who are novices/non-gamers to get into the gameplay in a very low-pressure way.

What impact do you see this game having on introducing this music to a new audience?

I can’t imagine a more powerful way to introduce this music to a new generation, and it’s been a real privilege for the team at Harmonix to be a part of that.

What are the plans for releasing new music/albums for the game and how often?

We’ve already announced one downloadable Xbox 360 single, “All You Need Is Love,” and all of our and Microsoft’s proceeds from the sale of that track will be donated to Doctors Without Borders. We’ve also announced three full albums (i.e. the remaining songs from those albums that aren’t already included on the disc soundtrack) for download. We haven’t announced any more than that yet, but suffice it to say, the Beatles have a lot more incredible music, so I hope there will be more.

About the Author

John Gaudiosi

Editor-in-Chief

John Gaudiosi has been covering videogames for the past 20 years for outlets like The Washington Post, CNET, Wired Magazine and CBS.com. He has focused on the convergence of entertainment and videogames for outlets like Video Business, Home Media Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Gamerlive.TV and is also a freelance game columnist for Reuters and writes for outlets like Forbes.com, NVISION, Official PlayStation Magazine, EGM Now, Geek Monthly, PrimaGames.com, and Yahoo! Games. John also serves as the video game expert for NBC in Washington D.C. and has produced videogame documentaries for The History Channel and Starz Entertainment. John was named one of the Top 50 Game Journalists in the world by Next-Gen.biz in 2007. He is the co-author of Scholastic Books' How to Get into Videogames, Prima Publishing's Madden: Twenty Years of Videogame Football and Electronic Arts: The Official History.