List of songs in Guitar Hero Live
"Guitar Hero Live" is a 2015 music video game that's 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.
Guitar Hero Live
The task of developing the new game was given to FreeStyleGames around 2012. FreeStyleGames had developed both "DJ Hero" and "DJ Hero 2", 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 "Sing Party". 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 "[Guitar 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" as an influence towards the goal of providing an immersive, first-person experience.