Guitar Hero Live
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''Guitar Hero Live'' is a 2015
music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
developed by
FreeStyleGames Ubisoft Leamington (formerly FreeStyleGames Limited) is a British video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Leamington Spa. Founded in November 2002 by six industry veterans formerly of Codemasters and Rare (company), Rare, the stud ...
and published by
Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...
. It is the seventh main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' series. The game was released for
PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
,
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,
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,
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, and
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in November 2015. As with previous games in the series, the goal is to use a special
guitar controller A guitar controller is a video game controller designed to simulate the playing of the guitar, a string musical instrument. Guitar controllers are often used for music games such as '' UmJammer Lammy: NOW!'', ''GuitarFreaks'', ''Guitar Hero'', ...
to match
fret A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the neck or fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. On some historical instrume ...
patterns displayed on a scrolling note pattern on screen in time with the music. The game serves as a reboot of the ''Guitar Hero'' franchise, being the first new entry in the series since '' Warriors of Rock'' in 2010. Activision wanted to bring back ''Guitar Hero'' for the next generation of video game consoles but wanted the new game to be innovative. These innovations included a new
guitar controller A guitar controller is a video game controller designed to simulate the playing of the guitar, a string musical instrument. Guitar controllers are often used for music games such as '' UmJammer Lammy: NOW!'', ''GuitarFreaks'', ''Guitar Hero'', ...
featuring a 6 button, 3-
fret A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the neck or fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. On some historical instrume ...
layout in contrast to the 5 button controller of previous games. The game featured two main modes; ''GH Live'', the games career mode, featured the note pattern displayed atop
full motion video Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information duri ...
taken from the perspective of a lead guitarist during a concert, with the crowd and other band members dynamically reacting to the player's performance. In the other main mode, ''GHTV'', songs are presented with the note track overlaid atop their
music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
or from live concert footage. The mode also allows players to pick up and play currently-streamed songs at any time or use money and in-game credits to play any song within the library, forgoing traditional
downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enablin ...
. The game was shipped with forty-two songs on disc and 200 songs within the ''GHTV'' library; new content has been added to ''GHTV'' on a weekly basis, provided through premium shows that earn players unique rewards. ''Guitar Hero Live'' was released to mostly positive reception, with critics praising the new controller design for providing trickier and more realistic gameplay in comparison to previous ''Guitar Hero'' games, as well as the wider variety of content available via the ''GHTV'' mode. The main ''Live'' portion of the game received mixed reviews, with critics panning its weak soundtrack, lack of multiplayer and the live action videos. The ''GHTV'' mode also received mixed reception for its reliance on
microtransaction Microtransactions, often abbreviated as mtx, are a business model where users can purchase virtual goods with micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransact ...
s, and the inability to permanently purchase songs to own. Due to the game's underwhelming sales and reception, Activision laid off many employees of FreeStyleGames and sold the company to
Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', '' ...
in 2017. The ''GHTV'' mode was shut down on 1 December 2018, reducing the available ''Guitar Hero'' songs from 484 to the 42 present on-disc.


Gameplay

''Guitar Hero Live'' follows similar gameplay to previous installments in the series, requiring players to use a guitar-shaped controller with buttons and a strum bar to match notes on a scrolling "highway" corresponding to notes played in a song. In contrast to the previous five-button design, the ''Guitar Hero Live'' controller features six buttons arranged into two rows of three. The frets are represented by a "note highway", three scrolling lanes on-screen, containing either black or white notes representing the two rows. Lower difficulty levels use one row of buttons, while higher difficulties may include "chords" that use a combination of buttons from both rows. The game typically maps out
power chord A power chord (also fifth chord) is a colloquial name for a chord in guitar music, especially electric guitar, that consists of the root note and the fifth, as well as possibly octaves of those notes. Power chords are commonly played on am ...
s to use the top row of buttons, while modifications of those chords include others from the bottom row. Notes may be held and sustained, indicated by trailing lines after the note markers, during which the player can use the guitar's
whammy bar A vibrato system on a guitar is a mechanical device used to temporarily change the pitch of the strings. Instruments without a vibrato have other bridge and tailpiece systems. They add vibrato to the sound by changing the tension of the stri ...
to alter the held note's pitch for effect. Fast-moving sections of songs may employ the use of
hammer-on A hammer-on is a playing technique performed on a stringed instrument (especially on a fretted string instrument, such as a guitar) by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on to the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound. This ...
and
pull-off A pull-off is a stringed instrument playing and articulation technique performed by plucking or "pulling" the finger that is grasping the sounding part of a string off the fingerboard of either a fretted or unfretted instrument. This intermediate- ...
notes, marked with a special outline, which can be played without using the strum bar. The game also retains the concept of open strumming introduced in previous ''Guitar Hero'' titles, represented as a horizontal bar across the lanes and requiring the player to hit the strum bar without pressing any fret keys. The player is able to select one of four difficulty levels which affect the number and complexity of the note patterns they have to hit, and the speed at which the on-screen display scrolls. ''Guitar Hero Live'' can also be played by two players, both playing on separate guitar controllers with split-screen separate note highways, competing for the better score. Songs in ''GH Live'' mode (below) also includes vocals, allowing players to sing along in tone with the song's lyrics using a connected microphone. The game is playable via an app on
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
mobile devices, including the fourth-generation Apple TV. This version supports both "touch" mode and support for an optional
Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...
-enabled guitar controller that provides " hefull game in an uncompromised way" according to Activision. When in touch mode, the note display geared towards the 6-button controller is replaced with four touch-screen buttons but otherwise retains the same gameplay; with the controller, the game otherwise plays the same. Due to the size of the game relative to storage space on most mobile devices, ''Guitar Hero Live'' on iOS units requires a persistent Internet connection as all songs, including those that are normally part of the console on-disc soundtrack, are streamed from Activision's servers when played.


''GH Live''

In the game's primary single-player mode, titled ''GH Live'' within the game, the player completes songs while experiencing full-motion video taken from the
first-person perspective A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller ...
of a band's lead guitarist. The video includes shots of the audience and the band members. As the player performs the songs, the audience responds positively to good performances when few mistakes are made. If the player makes several mistakes in a row, the audience will become critical and start to jeer at the performer. To win back the crowd, the player can either match more notes correctly, or can use collected Hero Power to rapidly regain their interest. Hero Power, replacing Star Power from previous ''Guitar Hero'' games, is collected by correctly playing marked series of notes on the track; Hero Power can be accumulated, marked as on-screen guitar picks next to the track, to be used at later times. The player can release Hero Power for a limited time by either tilting the guitar controller upward or hitting a special button on the controller. The career mode is broken up into a dozen-some show sets, each set consisting of about 3–5 songs. The video for each set includes the band's introduction, banter between the band and crowd between songs, and final ovations on conclusion of the show. The player must unlock each set in order as to move forward. Once a set is complete, the player is shown the game's ranking of their performance and for each song, based on factors such as percentage of notes hit correctly, the longest streak of properly played consecutive notes, and how long they kept the virtual crowd excited about their performance. The player then unlocks the ability to play the individual songs outside of sets.


''GHTV''

In addition to songs that were shipped on disc, additional songs were introduced to the game through ''Guitar Hero TV'' (''GHTV''). On starting ''GHTV'' mode, the player was given a choice of a number of themed channels, which broadcast playable songs curated programs on a rotating schedule similar to a radio broadcast. One such channel always presented new songs that had been added to ''GHTV''. Songs in ''GHTV'' were played over the music video for the song or live concert footage of the band playing the song, instead of the custom visuals for the main single player game. The player could pick up and play on any song that was shown, but was also able to use earned Plays to replay a specific song outside of the channel's rotation. While playing in ''GHTV'', the player was scored to track their performance, and their scores were compared to other players - both those playing at the same time as well as asynchronous scores from other players. To help boost their score, players could accumulate Hero Power in the same fashion as in the ''GH Live'' mode. Prior to a song, the player could choose to use Coins, the in-game currency, to purchase one of several Hero Powers which they could deploy during the song, improving their score and performance. Hero Powers included temporary boosts in scoring multipliers, ability to clear all notes for a short distance on the track, or to increase or decrease the density of notes. When a song was complete, the player was ranked based on their performance with the other tracked players, and awarded
experience point An experience point (often abbreviated as exp or XP) is a unit of measurement used in some tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's life experience and progression through the game. Experi ...
s, Coins, and other bonuses. Experience points are used to raise the player's rank in the ''GHTV'' metagame, allowing them to unlock player card skins and other features of ''GHTV'', including Play tokens. Alternatively, players can use the paid,
microtransaction Microtransactions, often abbreviated as mtx, are a business model where users can purchase virtual goods with micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransact ...
currency Hero Cash to purchase access to content. In an update in December 2015, players on ''GHTV'' had an opportunity to be randomly pitted in a head-to-head challenge against another player of similar skill level, about twice every half-hour. Winning this head-to-head challenge could give the player an experience point boost. New songs to ''GHTV'' were typically introduced via limited-time "Premium Shows", which ran for a week or more; these songs were then moved into the on-demand catalog and later into the normal ''GHTV'' rotation. Access to Premium Shows could be purchased with Hero Cash, or by completing several specific songs in either on-demand or on rotation play. Within the Premium Shows, players competed in the same manner as with normal ''GHTV'' songs and could earn unique in-game rewards, such as coins or alternate skins for the on-screen note "highway". Players could purchase a "Party Pass" that allowed full access to all of ''GHTV''s on-demand songs and paid features for 24 hours, a mode that FreeStyleGames envisioned to be used when players are hosting large parties or similar events. As first held on the weekend of 6 November 2015, Activision could offer promotional periods that similarly offer full access. In addition to regular content, ''GHTV'' was used to provide specialty programming. ''GHTV'' offered curated music video shows with host segments wrapped around playable songs; the first such show features songs selected by the band
Avenged Sevenfold Avenged Sevenfold (abbreviated as A7X) is an American heavy metal band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1999. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist M. Shadows, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Zacky Vengeance, ...
and included commentary by the band on these selections.
Def Leppard Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1976 in Sheffield. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Allen (drums, backing vocals), Phil Collen (guitar, backing vocals), a ...
used ''GHTV'' to premiere their new music video for their single "Dangerous" in January 2016. Activision offered a contest for players to win prizes by participating in a special "Shred-a-Thon" premium show, highlighting the addition of
DragonForce DragonForce are a British power metal band from London, England. The band was formed in 1999 by guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman, and are known for their long and fast guitar solos, fantasy-themed lyrics and retro video game-influenced ...
's "
Through the Fire and Flames "Through the Fire and Flames", often abbreviated as TTFAF, is a song by English power metal band DragonForce. The song is acclaimed as the most successful song by the band. The song was the lead single and opening track from DragonForce's third ...
"—one of the most notoriously difficult songs that has appeared in other ''Guitar Hero'' titles—to the ''GHTV'' setlist. Activision announced in June 2018 that the GHTV servers will be shut down on 1 December 2018, rendering this functionality unusable. Players will still be able to play songs on disc. The iOS app was also delisted as its functionality would also cease with the shut down of the GHTV servers.


Soundtrack

The on-disc soundtrack of ''Guitar Hero Live'' includes 42 songs and spans across a diverse selection of genres, the developers recognizing that challenging guitar tracks are not strictly limited to rock music. The game's soundtrack include songs by
The Black Keys The Black Keys are an American rock duo formed in Akron, Ohio, in 2001. The group consists of Dan Auerbach (guitar, vocals) and Patrick Carney (drums). The duo began as an independent act, recording music in basements and self-producing their ...
,
Blitz Kids The Blitz Kids were a group of people who frequented the Tuesday club-night at Blitz in Covent Garden, London in 1979-80, and are credited with launching the New Romantic subcultural movement. History Steve Strange and Rusty Egan co-hosted th ...
,
Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...
,
Fall Out Boy Fall Out Boy is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist Pete Wentz, lead guitarist Joe Trohman, and drummer A ...
,
Gary Clark Jr. Gary Lee Clark Jr. (born February 15, 1984) is an American musician from Austin, Texas. He is known for his fusion of blues, Rock music, rock and soul music with elements of hip hop music, hip hop. In 2011, Clark signed with Warner Bros Records ...
,
Green Day Green Day is an American rock band formed in the East Bay of California in 1987 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, together with bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt. For most of the band's career, they have been a powe ...
,
The Killers The Killers are an American rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingd ...
,
The Lumineers The Lumineers are an American alternative folk band based in Denver, Colorado. The founding members are Wesley Schultz (lead vocals, guitar) and Jeremiah Fraites (drums, percussion, piano). Schultz and Fraites began writing and performing toge ...
,
My Chemical Romance My Chemical Romance (commonly abbreviated to MCR or My Chem) is an American rock band from Newark, New Jersey. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, lead guitarist Ray Toro, rhythm guitarist Frank Iero, and bassist Mi ...
, Pierce the Veil,
The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...
,
Skrillex Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead sing ...
, and The War on Drugs. Pre-orders of the game offered access to a time-limited premium show featuring three live recordings by
Avenged Sevenfold Avenged Sevenfold (abbreviated as A7X) is an American heavy metal band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1999. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist M. Shadows, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Zacky Vengeance, ...
, including " Shepherd of Fire", "
Buried Alive Premature burial, also known as live burial, burial alive, or vivisepulture, means to be buried while still alive. Animals or humans may be buried alive accidentally on the mistaken assumption that they are dead, or intentionally as a form of t ...
" and "
Nightmare A nightmare, also known as a bad dream, Retrieved 11 July 2016. is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear but also despair, anxiety or great sadness. The dream may contain situations of d ...
", filmed from their performances at the
Download Festival Download Festival is a British-created rock festival created by Terrance Gough, held annually at the Donington Park motorsport circuit in Leicestershire, England (since 2003); in Paris, France (since 2016); at Parramatta Park, Sydney (since 201 ...
in England and
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. Additional songs are provided through ''GHTV''. Two hundred songs were playable on ''GHTV'' at launch, and the developers plan on adding new songs to ''GHTV'' on a regular basis. There is no
backward compatibility Backward compatibility (sometimes known as backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with input designed for such a system, especially i ...
with songs or controllers from previous editions of the franchise; FreeStyleGames' developer Jamie Jackson justified the decision, explaining that ''Guitar Hero Live'' was a "completely new game" that existing content would not work with due to the change in core gameplay. There is not any traditional
downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enablin ...
for the game in the form of additional songs, instead using the streaming nature of ''GHTV'' to provide new songs. FreeStyleGames does not expect to make ''GHTV'' content available for offline play.


Development


Background and aborted reboot

Rhythm games like ''
Guitar Hero ''Guitar Hero'' is a series of music rhythm game video games first released in November 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Player ...
'' and ''
Rock Band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...
'' had been widely popular between 2005 and 2008, but due to oversaturation of the market and the onset of the
recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...
in 2009, the rhythm genre suffered major setbacks, and the genre's popularity had quickly waned. Sales of the previous installment '' Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock'' were below estimates and lower than previous games in the series. Weak sales of ''Warriors of Rock'', in part, led to Activision cancelling a planned 2011 sequel, and shuttering the ''Guitar Hero'' franchise. In a July 2011 interview with ''
Forbes.com ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family (publishers), Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing ...
'', Activision CEO Bobby Kotick stated that they were going to try to "reinvent" the series, but a former teammember of
Vicarious Visions Blizzard Albany (formerly Vicarious Visions, Inc.) is an American video game developer based in Albany, New York. The studio was acquired by Activision in January 2005. After releasing its last game as part of that company, ''Tony Hawk's Pro Ska ...
has stated that as of 2012, all development of ''Guitar Hero'' has come to an end within Activision. Another source close to Vicarious Visions had reported to ''
Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...
'' that while ''Guitar Hero 7'' was in development under an Activision studio, the game was considered a "disaster". The cancelled game omitted the additional instruments and used only a guitar peripheral, redesigning the unit to include six strings replacing the strum bar; the resulting unit was considered too expensive to manufacture and purchase. The developers had started from scratch to try to create new characters and venues that would be more reactive to the actual songs being played, to give the feel of a music video, but ultimately this proved too much of a challenge and had to be scrapped. Further, with a limited budget, the song selection was limited to "low-budget" hits of the 1990s, or at times reusing songs that had previously been included in ''Guitar Hero'' games. Though the team had a two-year development cycle, it was closed down after Activision president Eric Hirshberg had seen the current state of the project at the one-year point. Daniel Dilallo, a developer for Vicarious Visions at the time of cancellation, stated that he had come up with an idea of revitalizing the series using a first-person perspective approach, and had developed a prototype that he had called ''Guitar Hero Live'' at the time, though neither Activision nor FreeStyleGames have confirmed if this prototype was used as inspiration for the revived series.


As ''Guitar Hero Live''

In February 2015, rumors surfaced that new entries in both the ''Guitar Hero'' and ''Rock Band'' franchises for
eighth generation console The eighth generation of video game consoles began in 2012, and consists of four home video game consoles: the Wii U released in 2012, the PlayStation 4 family in 2013, the Xbox One family in 2013, and the Nintendo Switch family in 2017. The gen ...
s were in development;
Harmonix Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., doing business as Harmonix, is an American video game developer company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in May 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy. Harmonix is perhaps best known as bei ...
announced ''
Rock Band 4 ''Rock Band 4'' is a 2015 music video game developed and published by Harmonix. ''Rock Band 4'' allows players to simulate the playing of music across many different decades and genres using instrument controllers that mimic playing lead and bas ...
'' on 5 March 2015. On 14 April 2015, Activision officially announced a reboot of the ''Guitar Hero'' franchise, ''Guitar Hero Live'', with development by
FreeStyleGames Ubisoft Leamington (formerly FreeStyleGames Limited) is a British video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Leamington Spa. Founded in November 2002 by six industry veterans formerly of Codemasters and Rare (company), Rare, the stud ...
. In an interview with ''
Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...
'' magazine, Activision's CEO of Publishing Eric Hirshberg found that even after five years without a game, the ''Guitar Hero'' brand still enjoyed high social media attention, with over 10 million followers on the ''Guitar Hero''s Facebook page. However, Hirshberg stated that Activision realized they needed to reinvent the series so that consumers would not consider it much the same as previous games and to help sway those that were turned off by the earlier saturation of music games. The task of developing the new game was given to FreeStyleGames around 2012. FreeStyleGames had developed both ''
DJ Hero ''DJ Hero'' is a music video game, developed by FreeStyleGames and published by Activision as a rhythm game spin-off of the ''Guitar Hero'' franchise. It was released on October 27, 2009 in North America and on October 29, 2009 in Europe. The ga ...
'' and ''
DJ Hero 2 ''DJ Hero 2'' is a rhythm video game and a sequel to ''DJ Hero'', a spinoff of the ''Guitar Hero'' series. ''DJ Hero 2'' uses a special turntable-controller, the same as introduced in ''DJ Hero'', to simulate turntablism, the act of creating a n ...
'', and while both games were critically praised, the latter was released on the downward trend of the music game genre. FreeStyleGames had suffered some layoffs as a result of the hiatus of the ''Guitar Hero'' series, though remained an Activision studio and financially viable due to their work for the
Wii U The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4. The W ...
''
Sing Party ''Sing Party'' (formerly just ''SiNG'', and stylized as ''SiNG PARTY'') is a Music video game, music Party video game, party video game developed by Nintendo and FreeStyleGames and published by Nintendo for the Wii U. It is a karaoke-style game a ...
''. As the development of ''Sing Party'' wrapped up, the studio created an internal research and development department to begin brainstorming what their next game would, with input from Activision. Hirshberg had encouraged the team to reconsider ''Guitar Hero'', noting the fan dedication to the series, but noted that the game needed innovation to be successful. Activision gave the team freedom to develop the game without relying on the previous titles in the series. The core gameplay of ''Guitar Hero Live'' was rebuilt from scratch; developer Jamie Jackson explained that the goal of the game was to bring "big innovation" to the franchise rather than continue with the same format used by previous games. He explained to his staff to only "think of '' uitar Hero' as a name. Think of it as a music game with a guitar peripheral, but pretend that nothing else has ever been done." The team brainstormed on what had made the ''Guitar Hero'' series fun, and recounted the earlier titles of the series which were designed to enable the player to envision themselves as a superstar guitarist, subsequent design choices were made around recreating that experience. The team also cited fellow Activison franchise ''
Call of Duty ''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter video game Media franchise, franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold W ...
'' as an influence towards the goal of providing an immersive, first-person experience. Though FreeStyleGames experimented with other options including a controller-less game, camera and motion detection, and social-based games, but recognized quickly that the
guitar controller A guitar controller is a video game controller designed to simulate the playing of the guitar, a string musical instrument. Guitar controllers are often used for music games such as '' UmJammer Lammy: NOW!'', ''GuitarFreaks'', ''Guitar Hero'', ...
was a key part of the series' success. The developers recognized they wanted to have a guitar controller that players would not be embarrassed to have in their living rooms and spent time getting the look of the controller accurate to a real guitar. The design of the game's
guitar controller A guitar controller is a video game controller designed to simulate the playing of the guitar, a string musical instrument. Guitar controllers are often used for music games such as '' UmJammer Lammy: NOW!'', ''GuitarFreaks'', ''Guitar Hero'', ...
was overhauled, using
rapid prototyping Rapid prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) data. Construction of the part or assembly is usually done using 3D printin ...
to test potential guitar designs. The final design of the controller for ''Live'' utilizes a new design with six buttons arranged into two rows of three frets, designated by black and white-colored notes in-game, instead of using the traditional row of five colored
fret A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the neck or fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. On some historical instrume ...
s used by previous ''Guitar Hero'' games. Jackson explained that the new layout was meant to make the game easier for new players, as the three-button layout avoids the need to use one's pinkie finger, a difficulty they recognized new players had on the traditional five-button controller. The layout was also designed to provide a new challenge to experienced players, including more realistic simulations of
chords Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...
. The choice to use only three buttons also came from statistical analysis of past games, where about 80% of the players would never play harder than the Medium difficulty level which typically only required the use of three fingers with the previous five-button controllers. The initial controller iterations, presented both in-studio and to Activision, were met with skepticism but they found that players quickly adapted to the new scheme as an improvement over the older controllers. The "note highways" for the songs were created by both programmers and musicians using
MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...
software as to map to each of the six controller buttons and the open strum bar. Note highways were developed first for the Expert difficulty level, essentially recreating the guitar part of the song note for note, while highways for lower difficulty levels were then constructed by removing notes while assuring the core rhythm of the song remained. The game itself is presented in a more realistic and immersive style; the rendered stages and characters of previous games are replaced by
full motion video Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information duri ...
, shot from the
first-person perspective A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller ...
of the lead guitarist, simulating real-world concert settings. The video footage is dynamic, and can transition between versions featuring positive or negative reactions by the crowd and band members based upon the player's performance. The first-person footage utilizes
session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...
s as actors playing the remaining members of the band, and is filmed using a Bolt robotic camera system, programmed to simulate the motions of a guitarist on stage. The Bolt ran along a track, and was able to move and turn quickly, mimicking the speed of a musician's movements. Prior to filming with the Bolt, an actor outfitted with motion and position detectors acted out the song with the other band actors; these movements were recorded and then used to direct the Bolt as it replaced the actor in subsequent takes. To avoid injury to the other actors from the motions of the camera, the routines were all choreographed based on the camera's motions and used as cues for the other actors. To enable smoother transitions between positive and negative versions of the band footage, multiple takes were performed for each song using the same camera motions. Groups of 200 to 400 actors were filmed using a
green screen Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to r ...
to construct crowds; using varying takes and other editing techniques, the groups of actors could be made to cover much larger areas. To simulate larger crowds, these shots were superimposed on a combination of live footage from actual rock concerts and 3D models constructed by FreeStyleGames. The effects studio
Framestore Framestore is a British animation, visual effects company and creative studio based on Chancery Lane in London. Formed in 1986, it acquired (and subsequently merged with) the Computer Film Company in 1997. It works on feature films and telev ...
helped with editing and assembling the digital live-action footage.
Positional audio 3D audio effects are a group of sound effects that manipulate the sound produced by stereo speakers, surround-sound speakers, speaker-arrays, or headphones. This frequently involves the virtual placement of sound sources anywhere in three-dimensio ...
effects are also used as part of the footage, varying the volume of certain instruments depending on how close the player is to them on-screen in the footage. Ten different bands represent the songs in the "Guitar Hero Live" mode, playing in two different music festivals. Members of these fictional bands were selected through auditions prior to filming, making sure that they could recreate the actual performance of a song, as well as mixing and matching members of ensemble groups to get the right look and feel. Bands were filmed in a warehouse in Oxford, England. To help with creating appropriate stage presence for the fictional bands and their fans, FreeStyleGames created material that each band would have had in the band's career, such as album covers and clothing, using various musical genres to help inspire their designs. ''GHTV'' was designed by FreeStyleGames to allow them to provide new music without having to secure more stringent music licensing rights. FreeStyleGames found that this mode attracted the attention of bands who were eager to offer their music for it; the bands saw ''GHTV'' as comparable to the marketing that
music television Music television is a type of television programming which focuses predominantly on playing music videos from recording artists, usually on dedicated television channels broadcasting on satellite, cable, or Streaming Platforms. Music television ...
channels had done in the 1980s and 1990s, putting the imagery of the band at the player as they played along. FreeStyleGames also compared ''GHTV'' to music services like
Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
and
Pandora Radio Pandora is a subscription-based music streaming service owned by Sirius XM Holdings based in Oakland, California, United States. The service carries a focus on recommendations based on the "Music Genome Project" — a means of classifying indiv ...
. This approach makes it easier to secure licensing rights, and fits in better with the current "throwaway culture" nature of society today according to Jackson. Jackson explained that the feature and its curated playlists were "about discovering music as much as it is about going and finding music you know you already like". Activision's Hirshberg stated that ''GHTV'' was developed as a better means to provide new songs to players through a round-the-clock content platform, rather than relying on scheduled downloadable content, allowing the company to provide a much larger quantity of songs, with plans for "hundreds at launch on day one" of the game's release. ''Guitar Hero Live'' was considered to be a game that can be expanded upon in the future through content patches, as opposed to released new titles each year which had previously led to the music genre decline in 2009. Though FreeStyleGames added vocals prior to the game's launch, there are no present plans to include other instruments such as bass guitar or drums in the title, with Jackson stating that the game is "all about guitars".


Marketing and promotion

On 14 April 2015, Hirshberg and Jackson invited
Pete Wentz Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz III (born June 5, 1979) is an American musician best known as the bassist and lyricist for the rock band Fall Out Boy since 2001. Before Fall Out Boy, Wentz was a fixture of the Chicago hardcore scene and was the lea ...
of
Fall Out Boy Fall Out Boy is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist Pete Wentz, lead guitarist Joe Trohman, and drummer A ...
and
Gerard Way Gerard Arthur Way (born April 9, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and comic book writer. He is best known as the lead vocalist and co-founder of the rock band My Chemical Romance. He released his debut solo album, ''Hesitant Alien'', i ...
of
My Chemical Romance My Chemical Romance (commonly abbreviated to MCR or My Chem) is an American rock band from Newark, New Jersey. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, lead guitarist Ray Toro, rhythm guitarist Frank Iero, and bassist Mi ...
to promote the game. Wentz performed his band's song "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark" in the Guitar Hero Live mode, while Way and Jackson dueled each other on My Chemical Romance's song "
Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na) "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)" is a song by American rock band My Chemical Romance. It is the second track and first single from their fourth studio album, '' Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys'' (2010). Background Ac ...
". A commercial for the game was revealed in October 2015, starring Lenny Kravitz and
James Franco James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. For his role in '' 127 Hours'' (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Franco is known for his roles in films, such as Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Ma ...
. In conjunction with Activision,
The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
ran special promotional ads for ''Guitar Hero Live'', featuring the actors
David Ramsey David Paul Ramsey (born November 17, 1971) is an American actor, director, and martial artist, best known for his roles in The CW Arrowverse series '' Arrow'', '' The Flash'', ''Supergirl'', and '' Batwoman'' as John Diggle / Spartan, portrayin ...
and
Candice Patton Candice Kristina Patton is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Iris West-Allen in the television series ''The Flash'' (2014–2023), which earned her a Saturn Award from four nominations. Early life Patton was raised in Pla ...
playing the game in the week prior to the game's release. Activision arranged to have rapper
Macklemore Benjamin Hammond Haggerty (born June 19, 1983), better known by his stage name Macklemore ( ; (formerly Professor Macklemore), is an American rapper and songwriter. A native of Seattle, Washington, he has collaborated with producer Ryan Lewi ...
play ''Guitar Hero Live'' with FreeStyleGames' Jamie Jackson during the halftime show of the
Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...
home game on the Sunday prior to the release of the game.


Reception

''Guitar Hero Live'' received mostly positive reviews. Aggregating review websites
GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
and
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
gave the Wii U version 83.75% based on 4 reviews and 84/100 based on 4 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 81.91% based on 43 reviews and 80/100 based on 69 reviews and the Xbox One version 80.93% based on 20 reviews and 81/100 based on 21 reviews. Most reviewers praised the risk of changing up the gameplay of ''Guitar Hero'' with the new controller design, contrasting to ''Rock Band 4''s reliance on its established gameplay mechanics. Chris Carter of ''
Destructoid ''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017, and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022. History ' ...
'' considered the change a reinvention of the series, and though he had to relearn how to play the controller, enjoyed the experience and "the increased emphasis on chords and fancy finger-work". Griffin McElroy of ''
Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...
'' also praised the new controller, finding that the higher difficulties in the game present "the most challenging fake guitar-playing" that he's seen, and having to relearn the new playing style through the game's difficulties levels was a "delight". Matt Miller of ''
Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...
'' found the six-button layout was not any better than the traditional five-button one, but "nails a different dynamic" as it feel like one was playing more realistic guitar chords. Though ''
Game Revolution ''GameRevolution'' (formerly ''Game-Revolution'') is a gaming website created in 1996. Based in Berkeley, California, the site includes reviews, previews, a gaming download area, cheats, and a merchandise store, as well as webcomics, screenshots ...
''s Nick Tan was impressed with the challenge of the new controller, he felt the buttons themselves were too small and tight on the neck of the controller, and the new challenge may cause more casual players to forgo attempt to learn the new system and go back to ''Rock Band'' and the traditional layout. The full-motion video aspect of ''GH Live'' was not as well-taken as the core gameplay. ''
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
''s Scott Buttersworth found that he often ignored the motion video as he was too focused on the gameplay, and when he did notice it, felt it appeared "so campy
hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
it borders on parody" as it "absolutely trips over itself to sell you on the idea that you're a totally super cool rockstar". Tristan Ogilvie of ''
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
'' also felt that the live action footage was "overly cheesy vamping", and further felt no connection to the band and bandmates he was to be playing along with as there was very little context given between sets. Ben Griffin of ''
GamesRadar ''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites ''Total Film'', '' SFX'', ''Edge'' and '' Computer ...
'' found that the crowd and bandmates only seemed to have two states, "fawning and furious", making the transition disconcerting when the game switched between the two states simply based on his performance. Brandon Jones of ''
GameTrailers ''GameTrailers'' (''GT'') was an American video gaming website created by Geoffrey R. Grotz and Brandon Jones in 2002. The website specialized in multimedia content, including trailers and gameplay footage of upcoming and recently released v ...
'' believed it was difficult to "take the actors seriously" in part due to the duality of the crowd reaction as well as that the song was still based on studio recordings, sounding off in the concert setting. Jones further commented that the fictional bands were well-matched to the songs they played, and that the pacing of the presentation, moving quickly between songs, made the experience feel more like a real concert. McElroy acknowledged the presentation can potentially be "cringe-worthy", but felt that the video was put together with self-awareness of this factor to make it more charming, noting some of the extra details that FreeStyleGames and the actors used to fully take on their roles. The soundtrack for the ''GH Live'' portion was also considered weak. McElroy found most of the songs were from 2000 or later, forgoing classic rock songs, and considered the soundtrack to be the "biggest disappointment" of ''GH Live''. Buttersworth stated that many of the on-disc selections are pop songs that "just aren't cut out for Guitar Hero gameplay", as they feature the same repeating guitar riff over and over. Griffin was more favorable of the on-disc set list, finding that the tracks represented "the music landscape as it is rather than as it was". Carter also appreciated the soundtrack, calling it a "good spread" of songs that can appeal to everyone. The ''GHTV'' mode has mixed opinions, with most reviewers praising the concept, with the presentation of the channels were highlighted as hearkening to the heyday of
MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
, and giving the player the ability to explore new music. However, reviewers were critical of the emphasis on microtransactions, and though the game was "generous" with providing free Plays and other in-game currency rewards, this approach could still disappoint some players. Carter found that he could ignore the microtransactions and instead enjoy the freely-playable curated music channels, helping him to play music that he had not yet heard or was outside of his normal play style, giving him a "a really cool feeling" about exploring new music, as well as seeing music videos from his youth again. Ogilvie similarly found that he could spend his time in ''GHTV'' within the free channels exploring new music, but believed the mode was "somewhat inflexible for the time poor" as players may not find the type of music they want to play when they are ready the play and that there was a lack of a programming guide for these channels. Griffin said that the pricing structure was weak compared to established DLC models, believing that the pricing for options like the Party Pack would have been better used to unlock the ability to play songs that he would enjoy. Miller stated that the microtransaction "structure is exploitative", preventing him from easily accessing his favorite songs to play and making him frustrated with the game in the long run. Buttersworth was displeased with the need to grind through songs in the free channels as to earn Play tokens to access a song he wanted to play, and the ability to permanently unlock a song, stating "that lack of freedom undermined a lot of the fun". Premium shows were particularly noted as problematic, in addition to the lack of a practice mode for the ''GHTV'' songs, which may impact how those players that seek to perfect every song would enjoy the game mode. Tan noted that in addition to either the time to complete the challenges or in-game currency to unlock the show, the player would have to complete the show in one of the ranked positions to earn the offered prize, and if they failed, they would have to repeat that process again. In an earnings report shortly following the game's release, Activision stated that ''Guitar Hero Live'' was outselling their previous two ''Guitar Hero'' games, '' Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock'' and ''
Guitar Hero 5 ''Guitar Hero 5'' (initially referred to as ''Guitar Hero V'') is a 2009 music rhythm video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fifth main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' series. The game was released internat ...
'', though did not report exact sales numbers. In their quarterly earnings results presented in February 2016, Activision reported that sales for ''Guitar Hero Live'' missed their expectations, and in March 2016, announced that they had to let go of about 50 of FreeStyleGames' employees, though the studio still remains open to continue additional work for Activision. Prior to the
Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016 (E3 2016) was the 22nd E3, during which several hardware manufacturers and software developers and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products to the attendees, primarily re ...
, Activision stated they will continue to produce content for ''Guitar Hero Live'' but have no present plans for another game. ''Guitar Hero Live'' was nominated for "Game of the Year" for the 2016
NME Awards The ''NME'' Awards is an annual music awards show in the United Kingdom, founded by the music magazine ''NME'' (''New Musical Express''). The first awards show was held in 1953 as the ''NME'' Poll Winners Concerts, shortly after the founding of ...
, and for "Family Game of the Year" at the 19th Annual
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...
DICE Awards. It was also nominated for "Excellence in Convergence" for the 2016
SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...
Gaming Awards, and for the "Family" award at the 2016
British Academy Games Awards The BAFTA Games Awards or British Academy Games Awards are an annual British awards ceremony honouring "outstanding creative achievement" in the video game industry. First presented in 2004 following the restructuring of the BAFTA Interactive En ...
. A class-action lawsuit was filed against Activision in September 2018 in regards to the planned December shutdown of the ''GHTV'' service. The suit contends that Activision did not give a reasonable period of notice in a clear manner that the service would shut down, rendering most of the available songs unplayable. The suit was dismissed by the plaintiff without prejudice in January 2019. In February 2019, Activision offered refunds for anyone that had purchased ''Guitar Hero Live'' from December 2017 to January 2019, though did not state the reasons for this refund.


References


External links

* {{Authority control 2015 video games Activision games Guitar Hero Guitar video games IOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games Music video games PlayStation 3 games PlayStation 4 games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Wii U games Xbox 360 games Xbox One games Full motion video based games