Forty years after the Beatles last played together, fans can once again enjoy a Fab Four Christmas — with a package of products that costs more than £1,000.

Apple Corps is to release two Christmas products to add to the remastered albums and the play-along computer game, which are already stretching the budget of even the most obsessive collector.

The surviving Beatles, Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, plus Yoko Ono and George Harrison’s family have approved a limited edition, apple-shaped USB stick and a Christmas gift book set.

A Beatles Rock Band computer game has sold more than two million copies since its release in September, and the £145 box set of the band’s 13 studio albums, remastered at Abbey Road, has sold more than 500,000 copies in two months, generating almost £100 million.

The limited edition USB drive, released on December 7, marks the first time that the Beatles’ catalogue has officially been sold as digital files separate from the CDs. It contains the same remastered albums as the box set, along with mini documentary films and sleeve notes. The 16MB drive, restricted to 30,000 copies, will sell for £200.

The Box of Vision, on sale for £100, contains three books and a storage box. It is, according to Jonathan Polk, who designed the package, the “ultimate fan piece”, and includes art quality prints of Beatles album sleeves, a discography and a case designed to hold the remastered CDs.

Polk claims that the Christmas deluge of Beatles material is not exploitation but a response to demands made by fans. He said: “The Beatles invented the rock album format and it was my goal to ensure that fans can continue to discover and appreciate this single greatest catalogue of music the way it was originally created.”

With the cupboard scraped bare of listenable studio out-takes and no prospect of new material, Apple Corps, which administers the Beatles’ interests, is exploring new “high value” products to entice collectors.

Ardent fans say that the mono versions of the original albums, now remastered and available for Christmas in a £170 box set with hand-glued sleeves, cannot be improved on. High-quality vinyl versions of the EMI studio albums are planned for next year.

The surviving Beatles are seeking ways to make their hits available digitally despite being unable to agree a deal with the Apple computer company to sell songs through iTunes. Dhani Harrison, George’s son, said that the Beatles “disagree” with the standard iTunes price of 79p a song.

The Beatles will instead release downloadable versions of their albums, which can be played through the Rock Band game. A digital Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band will be made available through the Microsoft XboxLIVE online network.

Individual tracks will be sold for the Nintendo Wii platform, where the complete Rock Band game package, including Höfner Bass controller, Beatles drum kit and imitation George Harrison Gretch guitar, costs £360.

Apple Corps is hoping that the Boxing Day release of Nowhere Boy, Sam Taylor-Wood’s film about John Lennon’s troubled upbringing, will boost the Beatles market further. The soundtrack CD features original tracks recorded by the band that portray The Quarrymen, Lennon’s first beat group. However, the ultimate present for the Beatles fan who has everything — up to now, that is — has to be a front-row ticket to McCartney’s Christmas show at the O2 Arena. A platinum ticket for the show costs £1,200. Cheaper seats are being advertised for triple their £55 face value on ticket websites.

Last month Apple Corps took legal action to stop a US website selling unauthorised Beatles downloads. Some fans complain that the company has adopted a ruthless, commercial edge that contradicts the band’s “peace and love” Sixties image.

Aware that the records will soon fall out of copyright, the Beatles’ guardians are determined to find innovative ways to secure the band’s legacy for future generations.

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