MTV, Apple Corps and Harmonix have announced that they are collaborating on "a brand new videogame featuring the music of the iconic Beatles".

Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos said the game was a "dream project", and that it will be a "new, full-blown custom game title production built from the ground up".

"We want to take players on an experiential journey through the band's history," he said. It was later added that this is the exclusive Beatles tie up for music games.

MTV Networks president Van Toffler said, "We're going to provide the ultimate platform for new generations of fans to start their own love affair with the Beatles".

He said the game has the blessing of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison. He added that Giles Martin is doing music production - the son of George Martin.

Toffler said we should "stay tuned for details over the coming months".

During a Q&A following the announcement, we were told "this will not be a Rock Band title, this is going to be a custom title dedicated for the Beatles", and that the game will be out for "holiday of next year", i.e. Christmas 2009.

"Interoperability with Rock Band is something we're not ready to talk about yet," Alex Rigopulos said in response to a question about DLC possibilities.

Jeff Jones, CEO of Apple Corps, added that the Beatles game would span the entire run of Beatles music; Rigopulos said that "there will of course be interactive performance of the Beatles music", and that there will be new gameplay elements too.

"The thing that we're trying to keep to is for people to play the songs as though they're playing the originals. So we will be adhering to the original mixes my father and the Beatles did, and trying to preserve the sound quality as much as possible," Giles Martin said.

"A visual exploration of the Beatles' imagery is a big part of this project," Rigopulos said. "With apologies...there's very little that we're ready to say about the game itself."

Rigopulos said that peripherals that worked with other games - i.e. Guitar Hero - would work with the Beatles game to the same degree they do with Rock Band.

More as they say it.

The latest issue of Japanese game magazine Famitsu announces a new Resident Evil (AKA Biohazard in Japan) game for the Nintendo called Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles.

The Wii light gun game is a continuation of Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and set in the world of Resident Evil 2. Resident Evil 2 is set in fall 1998 as the resident of Racoon City are infected with the T-virus and turned into zombies. The game's release date and price have not yet been announced.

Railer shooter The Umbrella Chronicles was released in November 2007 and sold over a million copies worldwide.

Street Fighter 4
Development has just begun and the release of the game is more than a year away. No platforms are yet confirmed - a highly stylised animated concept trailer of Ryu and Ken fighting was shown, but no game footage.

Need for Speed SHIFT – Fall 2009
Shift into high gear! Designed to deliver a true driver’s experience that reflects contemporary motorsports, Need for Speed SHIFT is built by racers for racers. Need for Speed SHIFT delivers an authentic and immersive driving experience developed by Slightly Mad Studios in collaboration with executive producer Michael Mann at Black Box and senior vice president Patrick Soderlund at EA Games Europe. Slightly Mad Studios includes developers and designers that worked on the critically acclaimed games GT Legends and GTR 2. Need for Speed SHIFT replicates the true feeling of racing high-end performance cars like never before. Players are thrust into the heart of the action with immersive and exciting features including a stunningly realistic first-person cockpit view camera and an all-new crash mechanic, providing an unrivaled sensation of the speed and feeling of racing a car on the extreme edge of control.