Harmonix fretted over Yoko Ono’s reaction to their John Lennon portrayal

Gamesradar reports Harmonix developers were "sweating bullets" when they showed their in-development depiction of John Lennon to Yoko Ono for The Beatles: Rock Band.

Studio creative director Josh Randall recalled meetings where he presented the team’s version of Lennon and asked, "OK, Yoko, here is our depiction of your dead husband singing this super impassioned song ... What do you think?" Randall admitted, "The thing is, she was totally right." He said Lennon "looked like a mopey shoe-gazer guy" and that the team "hadn't figured out how to depict his personality," while Ono reportedly responded, "No, he was a tough guy. He could be mean. Like, that's not him. Who is this guy?" CEO Alex Rigopulos said Ono "was a tough customer – as she should have been."

The developers addressed Ono's criticisms by scrutinizing archival footage, including the group's 1965 Shea Stadium performance. The account appears in Blake Hester's book The Oral History of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the Music Game Boom, an excerpt of which was published by Design Room.

Key Topics

Culture, Harmonix, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Beatles Rock Band, Shea Stadium