That's the $249 version, with Ringo Starr's drums and Paul McCartney's bass (plus microphone and stand). GamesIndustry.biz reports that Phillipe Dauman, the Viacom boss, told a conference yesterday that sales have exceeded internal expectations, to the tune of 25 percent of its inventory being sold in the first week.

"The special limited edition hardware sets that we have are selling really fast," Dauman told the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVIII Conference in New York, "and it looks to us that we'll be selling out of that in November."

Dauman added that the game's sales have been, in particular, helped by the price cut on the PlayStation 3.

Should Dauman be right, it will be interesting to see if a bona fide holiday gray market can develop for the Beatles' top-shelf bundle, considering the expectations of a poor holiday spending season overall, and the fact it's not a console, just a very expensive version of a single game.

The Beatles Rock Band Sales "Exceeding Expectations" [GamesIndustry.biz]

A little over a year ago Viacom was singing the praises of Rock Band, heralding the rhythm game as the driving force behind a 33% profit increase during the first quarter of 2008. Cut to a year later, and Rock Band is once again a focus, but not in such a positive way. The company's second quarter 2009 financial results report a 14% decline in revenues and a 26% decline in operating income. In both cases, slow sales of Rock Band are listed as a key factor in the losses, driving down the company's Media Networks segment's operating income by 12% and revenues by 8%.

The Media Network revenue drop to $1.97 billion is listed as being "principally due to a 41% decline in ancillary revenues driven by lower sales of the music video game Rock Band."

If Rock Band alone can have that big of a positive or negative effect on the company's financials, it sounds like there are too many rhythm-based eggs rocking out in that one basket there.

Or, at least, that’s what Rock Band owners Viacom reckon. So take that with a grain of salt.

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman:

There's a strong music orientation to our company; many of our networks are ideal vehicles to promote the game, and you'll see more and more of that as we move forward.

We also have the opportunity to attract talent to [Rock Band] in a way that our competitors have greater difficulty doing.

The fact Guitar Hero have a Metallica game coming early next year kinda negates that point, but then, the Rock Band v Guitar Hero stoush has never been about accuracy. It’s been about the spectacle.

Viacom: Talent Prefers Rock Band [Edge]

Another $150 million will be paid to the Harmonix dudes in 2009, making the total... carry the 1... an impressive $300 million in bonuses from owner Viacom.

Given Sumner Redstone's current money issues with his other businesses (Midway, National Amusements) it may seem a little out of whack in terms of fund allocations, but a spokeswoman told Bloomberg "If they are making more money for us and we have to give a little back, that's OK."

Viacom to Pay $300 Million Bonus to `Rock Band' Maker [Bloomberg]

Viacom rocks with Rock Band [Reuters]
Photo by Lester Cohen of WireImage

It is unfortunate that Gibson unfairly desires to share in the tremendous success enjoyed by the developers of Rock Band and Guitar Hero. This lawsuit is completely without merit and we intend to defend it vigorously.

Gibson's patent, filed nearly 10 years ago, required a 3D display, a real musical instrument and a recording of a concert. Rock Band and Guitar Hero are completely different: among other things they are games, require no headset and use a controller only shaped like a real instrument.

Harmonix Earns $208.7 Million Bonus From Viacom [Gamasutra]

While major portions of the deal won't directly impact Xbox 360 owners, as it includes shared advertising revenues and content for MSN and blah blah blah, the prospect of increased Cribs access is too enticing to ignore. I can only hope this alliance will bring the criminally overlooked TV Funhouse to the list of available Comedy Central programs.

Microsoft, Viacom Ink $500 Mil Ad Deal [CNN/Money]

While much of the money will develop preschool-oriented content, expect overhauls on Nickelodeon sites Addictinggames.com, Shockwave.com and NeoPets.com. More NeoPets? Sweet. Pokemon rip-off, I choose you!

But when you realize all of those sites are owned by one of the most powerful media conglomerates in the world, it makes you crave something a lot more substantial than Pong repackaged as a soccer ball. Hopefully this $100 million goes to good use and feeds content-starved gamers.
Nickelodeon Commits $100 mln to Casual [nextgen]

There are a number of reasons for this, chief among them is the fact that ZD has tied their print magazines to the deal. In other words, if you don't buy EGM and Games for Windows you can't buy 1Up.

This may seem like a negotiable point, but Ziff Davis isn't stupid and they know that they can't sell the magazines alone, especially in today's anti-print environment, so they are tying it to their very valuable 1Up property.

What that means is that any buyer who wants to cut a deal with Ziff Davis is going to have to do one of three things: Run the magazines, count on flipping them (which is very risky), or buy em up and then shut them down and take the loss on the chin.

So why can't Viacom do this?

Well they could, but they probably won't. They don't have any interest in print so why would they saddle themselves with some magazines? And they have this little issue called shareholders, who aren't going to sit quietly by while their money is sunk into something that is going to be torpedoed immediately or be hopefully sold off eventually.

If someone is going to jump at this deal, and I'm sure someone will, it will be someone in the publishing business already. So the next time you walk by a magazine rack, take a careful look, one of those magazines is about to get a couple of siblings. Brian Crecente