Guitar Hero Live Announced

April 15, 2015

With Rock Band 4 looming over the horizon, Activison announced the revival of its own rhythm game series: Guitar Hero. The latest iteration, Guitar Hero Live, will be developed by Freestyle Games (developers of the DJ Hero games), and will be hitting the PS3, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U and mobile in Spring 2015.

Activision and Freestyle Games are positioning this as a major reboot of the dormant series, and are introducing a host of new concepts and mechanics. The guitar controller has been redesigned; gone is the five coloured fret buttons, in their place are two rows of three buttons. While easier difficulties will require players to just worry about hitting a row of buttons, higher difficulties will require players to start learning chords and more complex play.

The game will also introduce two major ways to play the game. GH Live will see you playing in front of a full motion video crowd in the first-person perspective. The crowds (and your bandmates) will react dynamically to your performance, encouraging you and getting into the song, or booing you and questioning your abilities. The mode aims to run the gamut from small gigs to sold out stadium gigs.

The other mode is GHTV, which Activision describes as “the worlds first playable music network.” You can play along to official music videos, ranging from latest hits to the greatest hits. This mode allows for local and online play, and Activision is looking to keep this updated with leaderboards, themed shows and much more.

While no songs have been confirmed yet, the following artists will be represented in the game: The Black Keys, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Gary Clark, Jr., Green Day, Ed Sheeran, The War on Drugs, The Killers, Skrillex, The Rolling Stones, The Lumineers, Carrie Underwood, Pierce the Veil and Blitz Kids,

Guitar Hero Live marks the first entry in the Guitar Hero franchise since 2010′s Warriors of Rock, and is also the seventh mainline entry in the series.