Guitar Hero Live is a 2015 music video game developed by FreeStyleGames and published by Activision. It is the first title in the Guitar Hero series since it went on hiatus after 2011, and the first game in the series available for 8th generation video game consoles (PlayStation 4, Wii U, and Xbox One). The game was released worldwide on 20 October 2015 for these systems as well as the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and iOS devices including the Apple TV.
The title is considered a reboot of the series; instead of using a five-button guitar-shaped game controller, the game shipped with a six-button controller, arranged in two rows of three aimed to provide more realistic fingering positions than the five-button controller. The game includes 42 songs on the game's disc, presented in sets using full motion video taken from the first-person perspective of the lead guitarist as the background visuals to create an immersive experience. Guitar Hero Live does not use traditional downloadable content to expand the game and is not backward compatible with previous songs from Guitar Hero games. Instead, the game includes the online Guitar Hero TV (GHTV) mode modeled after music video channels that players can jump in or out of at any time, playing through ongoing songs in a curated fashion. GHTV, through in-game rewards and microtransactions, supported the ability to play any song in the library, perform Premium shows where the newest tracks to GHTV could be found, or even unlock all features for a 24-hour period as part of a Party Pass. Two hundred songs were available at the release of the game, with more added over time, averaging about six new songs each week.
FreeStyleGames selected on-disc songs from a wider variety of music genres beyond rock music as to provide challenging guitar tracks for players, while their approach to licensing of songs for GHTV enabled them to attract more musical acts to offer their music. Game reviewers found the on-disc soundtrack to be weak as it focused too much on more recent musical acts, while praising the wider variety across a larger time period that GHTV offered.
On-disc soundtrack 42 songs are featured on disc as part of the game's main "GH Live" career mode. Players progress through the career mode by playing one of several continuous sets of three to five songs, with each set presented as part of a concert performance. During a set, the game shows the note highway, the on-screen fretboard which represents the notes the player should play in time to the music, and other gameplay elements. This is shown atop live-action footage taken from the first-person perspective of the lead guitar player of one of several fictional bands, performing on stage and watching the reaction of the crowd and their bandmates. The live-action footage is manipulated by the game to reflect how well the player is performing. Once the player has completed a set, all songs from that set are available in a quickplay mode, allowing the player to perform a single song at a time which they can use to practice the song or attempt to achieve a better score.
In selecting the on-disc songs, FreeStyleGames recognized that engaging guitar tracks are not strictly limited to rock music, and included other genres into the mix. According to designer Jim Norris, their selection process began with identifying songs that would be expected by players to be on a Guitar Hero title, and then determining which of those songs which they could license. Once they had obtained the license, FreeStyleGames would mark up the song for the note highways and determined how much fun these songs would be to play. Finally, they balanced the song selection in the game to give players a combination of songs they know and those they may not recognize but would be enjoyable.
The table below lists the on-disc songs, including the venue and fictional band that are used in the set where the song is included. Show/Venue Band Artist(s) Song Year Genre Sounddial: Castle Stage Broken Tide "45" 2012 Rock Rock The Block: The Ledges Yearbook Ghosts Good Charlotte "" 2002 Rock Rock The Block: The Ledges Quantum Freqs Skrillex "Bangarang (ft. Sirah)" 2011 Alternative Rock The Block: Roadblock Fighthound Soundgarden "Been Away Too Long" 2012 Rock Rock The Block: The Ledges Quantum Freqs Eminem "Berzerk" 2013 Alternative Sounddial: Fire Pit Blackout Conspiracy Of Mice & Men "Bones Exposed" 2014 Metal Rock The Block: Strictland Park Rihanna "California King Bed" 2010 Pop Rock The Block: The Ledges Quantum Freqs Kasabian "Club Foot" 2004 Alternative Sounddial: Barn Stage OneRepublic "Counting Stars" 2013 Pop Sounddial: Barn Stage Imagine Dragons "Demons" 2012 Pop Rock The Block: The Ledges Yearbook Ghosts Neon Trees "Everybody Talks" 2011 Pop Rock The Block: Strictland Park "Girls" 2013 Indie Sounddial: Castle Stage Broken Tide "Gold on the Ceiling" 2011 Rock Rock The Block: Strictland Park Elbow "Grounds for Divorce" 2008 Indie Rock The Block: Strictland Park Avril Lavigne "Here's to Never Growing Up" 2013 Pop Sounddial: Barn Stage Portland Cloud Orchestra "Ho Hey" 2012 Indie Sounddial: Barn Stage Portland Cloud Orchestra Mumford & Sons "I Will Wait" 2012 Indie Rock The Block: Cactus Joe's Broken Tide Rival Sons "Keep on Swinging" 2012 Rock Sounddial: Fire Pit Our Pasts Collide Thirty Seconds to Mars "" 2005 Rock Sounddial: Fire Pit Blackout Conspiracy Pierce the Veil "King for a Day (ft. Kellin Quinn)" 2012 Metal Rock The Block: Strictland Park Jack White "Lazaretto" 2014 Rock Rock The Block: Roadblock Vivid Screams Deap Vally "Lies" 2013 Indie Sounddial: Castle Stage Broken Tide Royal Blood "Little Monster" 2014 Rock Sounddial: Fire Pit Our Pasts Collide You Me at Six "Lived a Lie" 2014 Rock Rock The Block: Roadblock Vivid Screams Halestorm "Love Bites (So Do I)" 2012 Rock Rock The Block: Roadblock Fighthound Pearl Jam "Mind Your Manners" 2013 Rock Sounddial: Barn Stage Portland Cloud Orchestra Of Monsters and Men "Mountain Sound" 2012 Indie Sounddial: Fire Pit Our Pasts Collide Fall Out Boy "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)" 2013 Rock Rock The Block: Roadblock Vivid Screams Paramore "Now" 2013 Rock Rock The Block: Roadblock Fighthound Green Day "Nuclear Family" 2012 Rock Rock The Block: Cactus Joe's VIP Party "Paint It Black" 1966 Rock Rock The Block: Cactus Joe's Broken Tide Arctic Monkeys "R U Mine?" 2013 Indie Rock The Block: The Ledges Yearbook Ghosts Blink-182 "" 2001 Rock Sounddial: Fire Pit Blackout Conspiracy Bring Me the Horizon "Shadow Moses" 2013 Metal Rock The Block: Cactus Joe's Broken Tide Wolfmother "Sundial" 2009 Rock Rock The Block: Cactus Joe's VIP Party Queen "Tie Your Mother Down" 1976 Rock Sounddial: Castle Stage Broken Tide Rise Against "Tragedy + Time" 2014 Rock Sounddial: Castle Stage Broken Tide Biffy Clyro "Victory Over the Sun" 2013 Rock Rock The Block: Strictland Park Katy Perry "Waking Up in Vegas" 2008 Pop Rock The Block: The Ledges Quantum Freqs Linkin Park "Wastelands" 2014 Rock Sounddial: Barn Stage "When You Were Young" 2006 Rock Rock The Block: Cactus Joe's VIP Party "Won't Get Fooled Again" 1971 Rock
GHTV
Forgoing the downloadable content model used in previous Guitar Hero games, Guitar Hero Live added songs to the game via Guitar Hero TV (GHTV), an online game mode offered free-of-charge in Guitar Hero Live. Instead of playing the immersive first-person view that the main career mode presents, songs on GHTV were played over the music video or footage of the band playing at a concert. Songs on GHTV were normally offered in a curated rotation, similar to a music video channel, allowing the player to drop in and out, but the player could use collected in-game rewards or microtransactions to play any available song outside of this rotation. FreeStyleGames found that this approach, in contrast to the traditional downloadable content model, made it easier to secure licensing rights with artists to use their songs, as well as a throwback to the heyday of music video channels like MTV.
Launch songs Two hundred songs were initially available on GHTV on the game's release on 20 October 2015.