John Lennon's most popular solo album, Imagine, will be "among the first albums" available for download following this week's launch of Rock Band 3, according to the game's developers.
Hyping this week's release of Rock Band 3, MTV Games and Harmonix revealed that the legendary Beatles' full 10-song Imagine album will be paid downloadable content, keyboard parts included to be played with the new game's keyboard peripheral. The album will supplement the inclusion of the song Imagine included on the Rock Band 3 disc.
Rock Band development studio Harmonix has been offering albums for paid download since the release of Rock Band 2. After a slower-than-expected start, the team has been able to offer more than 20 albums for sale as downloads, across Rock Band and The Beatles Rock Band games.
Update: After this post was originally published, we got a little more information from a Rock Band spokesperson about the instrument options for the album: "All Rock Band 3 DLC will include five-button bass and guitar, drums, Pro drums, keys, Pro keys and harmonies, where applicable. Meaning if a song has a keyboard part or harmonies in it, the keyboard part and harmonies will be included in the DLC track. This includes both Pro Keys and Pro Drums. We have not yet announced any Pro Guitar or Pro Bass upgrades for Imagine. Also, you don't have to have the keyboard to play the keyboard parts of any song for Rock Band 3. You can play the five-button key parts on your traditional five-button guitar controllers." (And, as with all forthcoming Rock Band 3 era DLC it will not be compatible with earlier versions of Rock Band due to a change in file format.)
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