Guitar Hero
Following a five-year hiatus, as described below, Activision announced "Guitar Hero Live" for release in late 2015 on most seventh-generation and eighth-generation consoles. "Live" was developed to rebuild the game from the ground up, and while the gameplay remains similar to the earlier titles, focusing primarily on the lead guitar, it uses a 3-button guitar controller with each button having "up" and "down" positions, making for more complex tabulators. The game using live footage of a rock concert, taken from the perspective of the lead guitarist, as to provide a more immersive experience.
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
On February 15, 2008, Activision announced that one of their two new "Guitar Hero" installments would be "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith", and would be released in June 2008. "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith" was developed by Neversoft for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, the Wii version of the game was being developed by Vicarious Visions, and the PlayStation 2 version was developed by Budcat Creations.
The idea for "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith" came about during the development of "Guitar Hero III". Originally, a cover version of "Same Old Song and Dance" was present in the game, but Neversoft president Joel Jewett noted that the quality of the recording was poor. After getting in contact with Joe Perry, Perry was able to provide the original masters for the song, and, according to Neversoft developer Alan Flores, "that sort of established the relationship." This also came at a time where Activision was attempting to expand the "Guitar Hero" franchise, and fans expressed a strong interest in playing a game focused solely on Aerosmith's works, according to RedOctane's Dusty Welch. Another producer for the game, Aaron Habibipour, stated that Aerosmith was one of the five "holy grail" musical groups as polled by Activision. "Newsweek" reported that Aerosmith's license allows for exclusive use of their songs within the "Guitar Hero" series for a limited amount of time, preventing their use within other rhythm games such as "Rock Band". This is not the first time Aerosmith has appeared in a video game. The band was previously featured in both "Quest for Fame" and "Revolution X".