Guitar Hero Live goes offline in December, making 92% of songs unplayable

Enlarge / Get used to never seeing this Guitar Hero TV screen (or any like it) starting in December.

In an unceremonious blog post this weekend, publisher Activision announced it will be shutting down the servers for Guitar Hero Live's "Guitar Hero TV" mode effective December 1. The move will effectively end access to hundreds of playable songs available only in that server-streamed mode.

The retail version of Guitar Hero Live also includes a 42-song "on-disc" soundtrack on consoles, and those songs will still be playable following the server shutdown (an iOS version, which has already been removed from the App Store, will no longer be usable at all as of December). But the game eschews the usual option of purchasing additional songs as downloadable content.

Instead, Guitar Hero Live players have free access to the few songs being streamed live at that moment on a handful of curated, rotating Guitar Hero TV channels. Players can also use in-game rewards or microtransaction purchases to essentially rent access to those online songs on-demand, including a "party pass" that gave time-limited access to all available songs. Both of these options will be cut off in December, and the in-game microtransaction purchases that help power those on-demand plays have already been shut off.

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