Abbey Road out now for Beatles RB

By Oli Welsh Published 20 October, 2009

The End was just the beginning.

Abbey Road, the first full album to be released as downloadable content for The Beatles: Rock Band, is released today on Xbox Live and at the Wii Shop. It will appear on PS3 with Thursday's PSN update.

MTV and Harmonix have announced the pricing and pack details for the various downloads available. Now pay attention, because this is rather complicated.

Six songs from Abbey Road are already included on the game disc. Xbox 360 and PS3 owners can choose to flesh these out with three individual singles, or a Complete The Album Pack.

The singles are Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Oh! Darling and Because. They cost 160 Microsoft Points, $1.99, €1.40 or £0.99 each.

The Complete The Album Pack includes those three songs and the entire 16-minute medley from Abbey Road's B-side. It costs £10.46, $16.99, €11.37 or 1360 Microsoft Points. You can play the medley in one shot, or as sets of one to three songs according to how they were recorded and composed.

On Wii, there's no album pack, so the album is delivered only as individual tracks or, for segments of the medley, multi-track sets.

Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Oh! Darling, Because and You Never Give Me Your Money cost 200 Wii Points ($2 / €2 / about £1.50) each. Her Majesty costs 100 Wii Points. The rest of the medley comes in pairs that cost 350 Wii Points ($3.50 / €3.50 / about £2.50): Sun King and Mean Mr. Mustard, Polythene Pam and She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, Golden Slumbers and Carry That Weight (the latter seguing into The End, which you already have, so it comes free).

Next up for the full album treatment are Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band next month, and Rubber Soul in December. Hopefully they'll be simpler.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • telboy007 #1 2 years ago

    Gotta love this DLC shenanigans, rakin' in the cash!

  • M_of_the_sys #2 2 years ago

    Yup. As much as I love The Beatles, I'll never be sucked into this cash cow.

  • Shadders #3 2 years ago

    I don't really understand the breakdown so I'll just buy the whole album.


    I can't help, but feel that's exactly what they wanted me to do...

  • Beano #4 2 years ago

    So basicly the medley is €7?

    To expensive IMO.

  • brof #5 2 years ago

    don't understand. the complete original album has 17 songs minus 6 songs you already own. so the complete DLC album should add 11 new songs and the medley, right?
    Edited by 2 at 20/10/09 @ 10:07

  • Beano #6 2 years ago

    "I don't really understand the breakdown so I'll just buy the whole album. "

    The "whole" album is 3 songs and the medley. I'm getting the three songs and skipping the medley :)

  • Ninja_Tino #7 2 years ago

    I'm not gonna lie, this is expensive. 3 singles = 9 to 10 minutes. B side = 15ish. 25 minutes total of song for over £10. I hope at least they're fun to play.

  • Eighthours #8 2 years ago

    don't understand. the complete original album has 17 sings minus 6 songs you already own. so the complete DLC album should add 11 new songs and the medley, right?

    Indeed. Something about this story's screwy. Even EA wouldn't release 3 songs for 99p each and then charge £7 for a medley!

  • Beano #9 2 years ago

    Weee... so I got a minus point for mentioning that the medley is pricey? :o

  • LiamK #10 2 years ago

    The medley isn't a single "track". It's the last few songs on the album. They're all about 2 minutes long and run into each other.

  • Johnson #11 2 years ago

    >> Weee... so I got a minus point for mentioning that the medley is pricey? :o

    Yes and another one for mentioning you mentioned it. Life's a bit rough sometimes.

  • Tricky #12 2 years ago

    Spot the people not that familiar with Abbey Road...

    The medley is made up of several songs which account for 8 of the 17 tracks on the album. These songs were all snippets of ideas that the Beatles glued together into one string of songs. Some of them are a bit short, but it doesn't really matter because the medley, taken as a whole, is one of my favourite Beatles things ever. So it's a definite buy for me.

    Yeah, it's a bit expensive but then if anyone thought that the Beatles stuff wouldn't be more expensive than normal DLC then they were kidding themselves. Harmonix have to go to Abbey Road to access the masters to create these tracks, so that's expensive, plus with the Beatles' royalties in there as well...

  • squeakyg #13 2 years ago

    I'm going to be checking the game all day to see when Abbey Road is available, aren't I? The Store screen even says, "Abbey Road now available in the store!" But it isn't.

  • brof #14 2 years ago

    ok, now I get it. The medley and the 3 songs are the missing parts from the Abbey Road album. 1360 Points for that... Seargent Pepper should not be more than 1500 Points, right?

  • OnlyMe #15 2 years ago

    ...and in the end. The love you take, is equal to the love you make...

    (her majesty's a pretty nice girl, but she doesn't have a lot to day. Her majesty's a pretty nice girl but she changes from day to day. I wanna tell her that I love her a lot, but I gotta get a belly full of wine. Her majesty's a pretty nice girl, some day I'm gonna make her mine, oh yes, some day I'm gonna make her mine)

  • Beano #16 2 years ago

    @Tricky: Thanks for clearing that up :)

    Yes I admit... I'm not a Abbey Road expert but I quess I'll have to consider buying it now (even though it IS a bit pricey) ;)
    Edited by 1 at 20/10/09 @ 10:17

  • superted1974 #17 2 years ago

    I have been reading about the Bettles on Eurogamer and they sound quite catchy.

    Can you get this music to listen to without having to wave bits of plastic around?

    If so how much would that cost?

  • influenceuk #18 2 years ago

    Yes superted1974, its called an audio CD! :)

    HMV have the recently released "Abbey Road: Remastered" album for £9.99, along with most of the other albums.
    Edited by 1 at 20/10/09 @ 10:52

  • lennon #19 2 years ago

    Yay for Maxwells Silver Hammer

  • superted1974 #20 2 years ago

    Thanks influenceuk - that looks like the best value of the lot!

  • schnide #21 2 years ago

    I think it's a real shame that this has all turned into what very much feels like a cynical cash cow rather than an opportunity for fans to expand on the songs available.. even if that's what The Beatles (or the marketing, as the band don't exist) have been about now for a long time now.

  • Shadders #22 2 years ago

    Just to check, on 360 I can't just buy the Medley?

  • squeakyg #23 2 years ago

    It's a shame I can't listen to Maxwell's Silver Hammer without thinking of Peter Sutcliffe.

    Go on, -1 this bitch!

  • LiamK #24 2 years ago

    "I have been reading about the Bettles on Eurogamer and they sound quite catchy."

    Yes. I have a feeling that this band might do well some day.

  • RobotRocker #25 2 years ago

    Hoping the Dreamscape for Maxwell's Silver Hammer has John mooning Paul from the recording studio window.

  • Jonathan_Fakenham #26 2 years ago

    Well, that's kind of expensive as far as music DLC goes. A handful of medley snippets and some tracks to fill in the gaps really.

    But if you figure in the studio digging they had to do and going over to the Abbey Road studios to grab the original masters, the individually animated dreamscapes and visuals, and the fact that you can actually play through the complete Abbey Road album as a Rock Band experience, it's done. I'm sold.

    The real "fault" here really, is that so many of the great tracks from the album were already included on the original game disc.

    But yeah. Grabbing the download and looking forward to sitting down to play through the album in its entirety. :D

    Hell yes.

  • Jonathan_Fakenham #27 2 years ago

    Looking forward, I guess Sgt. Pepper and Rubber Soul will be different deals entirely.

    Pepper is 8 new tracks (well 6 new, and the full, original, unremixed "Within You Without You" aswell as the sharper, more rocking Sgt.Pepper Reprise) and Soul is a full 11 new tracks!

    Remains to be seen what the pricing will be on those two though.

  • Jonathan_Fakenham #28 2 years ago

    Sorry to hammer on the comments, but after having played through the album and the medley now a second time, I just gotta say that slamming them all together as one long playable medley track turned out to be the most awesome thing. Beatles Rock Band has excellent tracks all over, but I gotta say the medley is now the best track by far. Variety, challenge, complexity, musicality and pure kick ass.

    "3 tracks and a medley" sounds kinda underwhelming when you see the 1360 points cost, and yeah the three tracks are kinda slow, but then I just experienced what a medley that was. Playing through it just now made me love that part of the album alot more, because when you listen to it, it kinda rushes on by.

    Also, a note: the complete medley has simpler, more studio-based visuals than the separate medley tracks. I guess due to the length of that thing, it's probably a memory limitation or restriction somehow.

  • FortysixterUK #29 2 years ago

    So buy the album for only a few songs? I don't think so !
    It's not as if its cheap either , £10.40 is a tad naughty...oh well, should have guessed they'd milk this cash cow.
    I love the original game, but won't be buying the DLC.
    Because of my decision the entire format will fail...there , you see? I have the power to crash the format...bwahahahaha.
    Frankly , they must think we are all fucking mugs.

  • RobotRocker #30 2 years ago

    @ Jonathan_Fakenham

    They announced a while back that they were sticking to Rock Bands regular pricing for Beatles Rock Band (160 Allards/99p a track, bundles vary but usually have one or two songs for free. e.g if you buy the Iron Maiden 12 pack. You are paying for 10 tracks and getting 2 free).