Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies, TV & Comics You Love
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
  • Games
  • TV
  • Movies
  • Hardware
  • Video
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Deals
  • More
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series X
    • Nintendo Switch
    • Nintendo Switch 2
    • PC
    • Platforms
    • Tabletop Gaming
    • Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • SFX
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsletters
    • About us
    • Features
Total Film
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
View
Trending
  • Summer Game Fest
  • New games for 2025
  • Upcoming Switch 2 games
  • Switch 2 stock

Recommended reading

Photos of the Turtle Beach PDP Riffmaster guitar controller (PlayStation version) taken by writer Rosalie Newcombe, in a pink and white office.
Gaming Controllers This controller took me back to my Guitar Hero glory days, and now the PDP Riffmaster has become my go-to for Fortnite Festival
A player wearing a gasmask and holding a gun in the upcoming PS5 game, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
Games GTA 5, Call of Duty, Genshin Impact, and 5 other games alongside 2 subscription services make up 53% of PlayStation Store revenue, more than the other 12,000+ combined
Nora Vasconellos grabs some air in the College stage in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4
Sports Games Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4's new levels impress me as much as the rebuilt classics: "This needs to feel like we found this on a hard drive for THPS4 and we revitalized it"
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Grand Theft Auto After nearly 23 years, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City follows in GTA 3's footsteps and is finally playable on the Sega Dreamcast
GTA Online The Criminal Enterprises
Grand Theft Auto Rockstar's arguably "been putting out a new GTA release a couple of times a year," says Take-Two CEO who reckons GTA Online updates could count as "standalone" games
Photos of the Turtle Beach PDP Riffmaster guitar controller (PlayStation version) taken by writer Rosalie Newcombe, in a pink and white office.
Gaming Controllers At a time when gaming is getting pricier by the second, this Fortnite Festival Riffmaster controller just dropped to less than $100
GTA 6 trailer 2
Grand Theft Auto After 23 years away from Vice City, I'm glad that 80s music still runs this town – and it sets the scene for GTA 6 perfectly
  1. Games
  2. Guitar Hero Live

Guitar Hero Live is playing a 3 year game with GHTV

News
By Leon Hurley published 7 May 2015

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Guitar Hero Live's GHTV is a streaming music service made of videos that have been processed to be playable as Guitar Hero tracks. Developer Freestyle is talking about a three year plan for the service with content and updates built around music events like Glastonbury.

Page 1 of 3
Page 1 of 3

The idea behind Guitar Hero Live's GHTV service is that it can stream music like a TV channel but with the interactive element of being able to grab a song and play along. It'll suggest new artists for you to try out and collect stats to see what people are playing, to better tune the service over time.

Page 2 of 3
Page 2 of 3

It looks like GHTV is planing plenty of options. The few artists mentioned so far are diverse, with guitar-focused artists including Biffy Clyro or Gary Clark Jr, more indie alternatives like Of Monsters and Men, through to more pop-facing options like Jake Bugg and Ed Sheeran. Even Skrillex has been name checked.

Page 3 of 3
Page 3 of 3
CATEGORIES
PS4 Xbox One Platforms PlayStation Xbox
Leon Hurley
Leon Hurley
Social Links Navigation
Managing editor for guides

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for guides, which means I run GamesRadar's guides and tips content. I also write reviews, previews and features, largely about horror, action adventure, FPS and open world games. I previously worked on Kotaku, and the Official PlayStation Magazine and website. 

There's nothing actually wrong with Guitar Hero as a game. It's just that last time around there were 14 of them in five years, no wonder everyone was sick of it. Question is, how is the rebooted Guitar Hero Live going to avoid that?

That's where the new GHTV service comes in (just one of Guitar Hero Live's new features). Speaking in this month's Edge, both the game's project director Jon Napier and Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg are clear that it's this they believe will make the difference. So what the hell is it?

It's basically Guitar Hero meets Singstar - a streaming service of music videos that have been through the Guitar Hero-liser (that's a thing now, I've decided). It's made of 30 or 60 minute shows (or individual songs if you're short on time) and combined with a YouTube-meets-Spotify recommendation system to suggest new tracks. Like those services you can leave it playing, picking up the guitar to jam along whenever a song you like comes on, and has a lot of potential to be a party backing track you can dip into as a game or just leave running.

You may like
  • Photos of the Turtle Beach PDP Riffmaster guitar controller (PlayStation version) taken by writer Rosalie Newcombe, in a pink and white office. This controller took me back to my Guitar Hero glory days, and now the PDP Riffmaster has become my go-to for Fortnite Festival
  • A player wearing a gasmask and holding a gun in the upcoming PS5 game, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. GTA 5, Call of Duty, Genshin Impact, and 5 other games alongside 2 subscription services make up 53% of PlayStation Store revenue, more than the other 12,000+ combined
  • Nora Vasconellos grabs some air in the College stage in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4's new levels impress me as much as the rebuilt classics: "This needs to feel like we found this on a hard drive for THPS4 and we revitalized it"

It sounds pretty diverse too with artists as varied as blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr’s and Macbook player Skrillex. The new Guitar Hero controller has also been redesigned with more casual players in mind suggesting the new game is really trying to widen its appeal this time and avoid that 'DragonForce on hard' exclusionary image (although hard options and songs are still promised).

Crucially, it's being built into "a multi- year service," explains the game's projects director Jon Napier. "We have lots of things that we’re putting together now for year one, year two, even year three. Rather than targeting the big holiday release window, we can look at events. We’ll have a schedule, of course, but it won’t be Thanksgiving, it’ll be Glastonbury". The game is promising "the biggest soundtrack of any game in the series to date" says Edge, with Napier explaining that analytics will track the popular stuff and let the studio add new tracks faster. Constant updates are promised post release and using official videos mean songs require minimal processing rather than creating assets and characters that require animating.

Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg is also big on the idea that GHTV could make Guitar Hero Live an on-going concern without wearing the player out. "I think GHTV is a very elegant solution to that," he says. "It allows us to keep the universe constantly updating, so there can be something new, potentially, every time you turn it on". While Guitar Hero kind of killed itself with a glut of disc releases before, Hirshberg thinks the new streaming set up will match the current expectations that "your music universe is going to be constantly updating". He points out that "a lot’s changed in both gaming and music since the last Guitar Hero" but the new GHTV means "we can bring new things to the audience without printing new discs".

The new issue of Edge is out Thursday the 7th of May with with Guitar Hero Live on cover, looking at the development of the new game and talking to the team behind it. Download it here or subscribe to future issues.

See more Games News
Read more
Photos of the Turtle Beach PDP Riffmaster guitar controller (PlayStation version) taken by writer Rosalie Newcombe, in a pink and white office.
This controller took me back to my Guitar Hero glory days, and now the PDP Riffmaster has become my go-to for Fortnite Festival
A player wearing a gasmask and holding a gun in the upcoming PS5 game, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
GTA 5, Call of Duty, Genshin Impact, and 5 other games alongside 2 subscription services make up 53% of PlayStation Store revenue, more than the other 12,000+ combined
Nora Vasconellos grabs some air in the College stage in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4's new levels impress me as much as the rebuilt classics: "This needs to feel like we found this on a hard drive for THPS4 and we revitalized it"
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
After nearly 23 years, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City follows in GTA 3's footsteps and is finally playable on the Sega Dreamcast
GTA Online The Criminal Enterprises
Rockstar's arguably "been putting out a new GTA release a couple of times a year," says Take-Two CEO who reckons GTA Online updates could count as "standalone" games
Photos of the Turtle Beach PDP Riffmaster guitar controller (PlayStation version) taken by writer Rosalie Newcombe, in a pink and white office.
At a time when gaming is getting pricier by the second, this Fortnite Festival Riffmaster controller just dropped to less than $100
Latest in Games
Death Stranding 2 PS5 screenshot
Hideo Kojima was "so bummed" Death Stranding 2 Easter eggs were "revealed on social media right away," but "I'm retweeting all these things so the blame is on me"
Elden Ring
Elden Ring's new content and Nintendo Switch 2 release could be coming soon – the Tarnished Edition was just rated by the ESRB
lea seydoux as fragile smoking a cigarette
Hideo Kojima says "I'm happy with the scores, thank you" as Death Stranding 2 settles at 90 on Metacritic, overcoming his fears that it might be too likable
Fallout
After revealing he was ordered to destroy his copy of Fallout's source code, OG lead Tim Cain says we're losing game history because companies "take authority but not responsibility" for preservation
Blizzard official World of Warcraft lo fi girl
After 4 years and 800k gold, World of Warcraft player claims the MMO's smelliest "World First" by collecting 10 million of a very specific fish: "I have no intention of ever getting rid of even a single one"
Death Stranding 2 Episodes Sam talking to Fragile in Episode 1
How many Episodes are in Death Stranding 2?
Latest in News
Fantastic Four Bookazine #1
You'll soon be able to buy Fantastic Four comics off a newsstand, just the way our ancestors once did
Death Stranding 2 PS5 screenshot
Hideo Kojima was "so bummed" Death Stranding 2 Easter eggs were "revealed on social media right away," but "I'm retweeting all these things so the blame is on me"
Elden Ring
Elden Ring's new content and Nintendo Switch 2 release could be coming soon – the Tarnished Edition was just rated by the ESRB
Holding the Nintendo Switch 2
Amazon's missing out on that sweet Switch 2 money because Nintendo's mad about "unauthorized sales," new report suggests
lea seydoux as fragile smoking a cigarette
Hideo Kojima says "I'm happy with the scores, thank you" as Death Stranding 2 settles at 90 on Metacritic, overcoming his fears that it might be too likable
Joe Freeman as Luke Ellis in The Institute
The Institute showrunners explain why the new Stephen King dystopian sci-fi TV series is more timely than ever: "Children shall inherit the earth, but first they have to save themselves"
  1. Sam fires at the ghost mech squid boss in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
    1
    Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review: "This tarpunk delivery epic is more Metal Gear Solid than ever, for better and worse"
  2. 2
    Rematch review: "As with Rocket League, the just-one-more-game pull is magnetic"
  3. 3
    Tron: Catalyst review: "Disc slinging is a thrill in this gorgeous rendition of the series, but I'm let down by a time-loop story that falls flat"
  4. 4
    FBC: Firebreak review: "A disappointingly bland multiplayer FPS that's missing far too much of what made Control special"
  5. 5
    Dune: Awakening review: "Both extremely compelling and extraordinarily boring, sometimes at the same time – yet still a true Dune love letter"
  1. A T-rex in Jurassic World Rebirth
    1
    Jurassic World Rebirth Review: "An unscary sequel that needed a little more time in amber"
  2. 2
    M3GAN 2.0 review: "A bold sequel with a slightly underwhelming conclusion"
  3. 3
    28 Years Later Review: "Enough terror, splatter and suspense to satisfy”
  4. 4
    Predator: Killer of Killers review: "Great characters, thrilling action, and gorgeous Arcane-esque animation"
  5. 5
    From the World of John Wick: Ballerina review: "Brilliant action, even if the plot gives you a sense of déjà vu"
  1. Lee Jung-jae as Gi-hun in Squid Game season 3
    1
    Squid Game season 3 review: "A staggeringly excellent final season wraps up one of the greatest Netflix shows ever"
  2. 2
    Ironheart review: "A relic of Marvel's content-at-all-costs era"
  3. 3
    Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 review: "The show's most assured run of episodes to date"
  4. 4
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 8 spoiler review: 'The Reality War' is "a mix of the good, the bad, and the truly baffling"
  5. 5
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 7 spoiler review: 'Wish World' is "an exciting and ambitious" start to the season finale, with hints of WandaVision

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...