• Ars Technica, Thursday, October 30, 2008 11:45 AM

Talk about a battle of the bands. Activision, which makes "Guitar Hero," and MTV-Harmonix, which makes "Rock Band," have for years been engaged in a war for exclusivity with some of the world's all-time greatest musicians in an effort to build the ultimate set lists for their respective music-based video games. But the big catch, The Beatles, have long lay unclaimed.

Until now, that is. In one of the biggest coups of the digital music era, MTV has won the rights to include Beatles music in its "Rock Band" game. But this is about more than gaming: This is the first time that the Beatles music has been licensed for release in a digitally-distributed format, including iTunes.

So does this mean's the Beatle's parent company, Apple Corp (not to be confused with Apple of iTunes fame, just one of many reasons that service never had access to Beatles music) is ready to make some deals? More should be revealed at the press conference Thursday officially announcing the deal.

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