Philippe Dauman, CEO of Viacom's (which owns MTV Games but not Midway any more) has shed a little more light on the upcoming Beatles/Rock Band project, promising that it will be an ambitious effort and cover much of the band's career.

Talking at the recent UBS 36th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference he claimed that the game has "never-before-heard dialogue from when they were recording their music" at the Abbey Road studios.

He continued, "It really goes through the history of The Beatles and they're collaborating with it. (Gamers) will start out in clubs in Liverpool and work (their) way through to the Abbey Road studio..."

The project is otherwise largely shrouded in mystery (which is neither magical nor on tour).

Speaking about the rivalry between the Rock Band camp and its Guitar Hero competitors, who also wanted the Beatles license, Dauman said, "We also have the opportunity to attract talent to [Rock Band] in a way that our competitors have greater difficulty doing."

Possibly by not pissing the talent's management off with 'attitude'?

Dauman credits ownership of MTV with that. It must be said, however, that Guitar Hero publisher Activision, thanks to its absorption into the Vivendi Group, isn't entirely lacking on the music industry connections front - Vivendi owns the Universal Music Group.

^{Source: CVG}