Gamasutra: EA's Pleasants: Beatles Game Will Be 'Great Business Force'

While a certain British band steals the title, Gamasutra's recent article documents much more interesting comments made by EA's COO John Pleasants. The most notable? "There are lots of other things you can do with music, and we're working on interesting things." This kind of news is a five-course meal to music/rhythm gamers like myself who are starved of innovation. (Departures like Patapon are barely a snack.)

It's really exciting to hear that an industry giant like EA is looking at actual innovation, especially when Activision's doing the opposite with GH: Metallica and GH: Greatest Hits. But will "interesting things" include new modes of input, gameplay other than hitting gems at the right time (i.e. hybrids with other genres), and, well, genuine innovation? Or will it just be new peripherals for Rock Band? As much as I love Harmonix, Rock Band was more of a logical extension of their previous products (GH2 and Karaoke Revolution) than anything actually new. With Rock Band Unplugged set for a 2009 release, we're exposing a new generation to Frequency-style gameplay. Maybe this will be the key to getting consumer approval for music games without plastic guitars.