A quantum leap forward in immersion and realism, GH Live is a live-action experience that delivers the full emotional roller coaster of being on stage and performing in a real band, in front of real crowds, who dynamically react in real-time to how well or poorly you play. As the lead guitarist, you play an array of songs that span the changing musical landscape, in a variety of venues, from the smallest club stage in front of a hundred people, to the massive main stage of an outdoor festival in front of a hundred thousand people.

Guitar Hero Live also introduces GHTV, the world's first playable music video network. GHTV is a 24-hour mode that lets fans play along to a continually-updated collection of official music videos - across a wide variety of genres - from the newest releases to favorite hits. Fans can pick from multiple channels and themed shows, discovering new songs as they play, and can also choose songs to play on-demand. In GHTV, fans can also play with their friends in the same room and against players from around the world to see who has the highest score on a given song, while completing challenges along the way. GHTV is a living, breathing platform that serves as an ever-growing source for new music discovery while further bringing the party atmosphere back to the living room.

Rival Challenges is a new feature in the GHTV channels that pits players against similarly skilled matchmade players in a 1-on-1 song battle.

Starting today, when you pop into the GHTV channels, you’ll experience what we are calling Rival Challenges. As you play through the channels, you will periodically be matched up against a similar-skilled opponent to square off, 1-on-1 style, in a song battle to test your skills. Here’s how it works:

• To unlock Rival Challenges, you will need to be level 10 or higher. We decided this because once you hit level 10, you will have gained access to Guitar Upgrades and accumulated some Hero Powers, which we think introduces fun and interesting layers of competition.
• Rival Challenges will occur twice in every half-hour show. The song choices will be picked by us, so you’ll always need to be ready!
• Your opponent will be of relatively close skill level, paired with you through our underlying matchmaking technology.
• The winner of each battle earns an extra +100 Status XP, along with bragging rights of course.
• Another bonus is showing off the personalisation items you’ve earned in GHTV. When a battle kicks off, both you and your opponent will see each other’s playercard and note highway on screen.

Additionally, we’ve added the ability to mark a song as a “favorite” so that you can revisit your most beloved songs. You can do so either directly in the on-demand catalog, or after you play a song in a channel. These tracks will now be marked in the catalog with a “heart” icon, and you can filter the list as you normally do if you just want to see your favorites.

Plus, we’re now gifting players who have depleted their song play tokens. If you log into GHTV with zero plays, we’re giving you a daily reward of three plays so that you can play whichever tracks you want on-demand.

The breakthrough innovations in Guitar Hero Live also extend to mobile. Both GH Live and GHTV arefully playable both on consoles as well as tablets and mobile phones. More exciting details will be announced in the near future.

Guitar Hero Live enhances the gameplay experience by introducing a modern, redesigned guitar controller, featuring two rows of three buttons that better reflects the way people naturally play. The new format ensures fun for players of all abilities. For beginners, you can feel like a rock star by mastering play with just the bottom three buttons. Medium-level players don't have to stretch their fingers down the neck of the guitar controller anymore and can instead skillfully play two-row combinations that mimic real chords. Experienced players have a new challenge in creating complex chord-like shapes and finger combinations that will bring new thrills to veterans. This simple innovation makes it easier for beginners to play and harder for veterans to master.

Music variety is at the heart of the game. Guitar Hero Live takes the approach of the modern music festival, with rock, folk, EDM, hip-hop, country and pop acts sharing the same stage. The game will feature hundreds of playable songs from a diverse array of artists, including 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, with many more bands to be announced...