Guitar Hero Live was Activision’s effort to revitalize the stagnant music game genre for the new era of consoles back in 2015. It didn’t go quite as planned, given that the title’s newest and most interesting feature is going away later this year. Guitar Hero TV, the game’s cycling jukebox-like playlist, is shutting down on December 1st. Activision announced the news recently on their support website.
Hero Cash, the mode’s currency, can’t be purchased anymore on the console marketplaces and players have until the shutdown date to spend it on GHTV. The iOS version of the game is also unavailable on the app store, as the website states, but those who already have it can continue to play it. It can be played past the cutoff date “as long as they do not update their iOS software.” Updating your iOS device doesn’t mean the app will stop working instantly, but Activision can’t guarantee it will work if you choose to update the firmware.
Guitar Hero Live was relatively well received by critics, with its standout mode being Guitar Hero TV. The constant cycle of music kept the game fresh, provided you could scrounge up enough tokens to keep going. It was a novel idea that, along with the new guitar, helped bring a different spin on the aging genre. Both concepts helped differentiate it from its rival, Rock Band.
But its new approach didn’t bring back the glory days of rhythm games. Guitar Hero Live underperformed according to Activision, which doesn’t bode well for the series’ future and helps contextualize this mode’s short lifespan. It’s not just Guitar Hero either. Rock Band 4, which also came out in 2015, failed to hit its sales target as well.
Guitar Hero‘s future is uncertain. Ubisoft acquired FreeStyleGames, developers of DJ Hero and Guitar Hero Live, in early 2017. Activision has not discussed its plans for the franchise nor has it talked about the series publicly in quite some time.
