Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is the first game in the series to include an online multiplayer feature, which is enabled in the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 versions.

The musicians Tom Morello (of the bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave) and Slash (of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver) make appearances both as guitar battle opponents and playable characters in the game.

The player hits notes as they scroll towards the bottom of the screen in time with music to maintain their performance and earn points.

[17] The single-player Career mode in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock features 8 tiers with 42 songs total.

[19] Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is the first game in the series to feature a storyline for the Career mode, portrayed through animated cartoon scenes between venues produced by Titmouse, Inc.

[20] The band starts as a neighborhood sensation, and after signing a recording contract with a shady music producer named Lou, gains worldwide fame, performing at venues around the world.

However, after their performance, the band finds themselves in Lou's Inferno, and is forced to play a live show for the netherworld in order to return to the mortal world.

[11] The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii versions of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock feature online competitive play, in which the player can compete against another user through the console's network service.

[26][27] Lee Guinchard, RedOctane's vice president of hardware, stated that wireless controllers were the "first, foremost consideration" for the game.

This slot allows the game to offer several features exclusive to the console, such as by using the internal speaker and rumble on the Remote to provide feedback on missed notes and Star Power.

[29][31] The PC and Mac versions of the game are bundled with the same USB-based Gibson X-plorer model that shipped with Guitar Hero II.

Several months later, Jewett was contacted by the Huangs, asking if Neversoft wanted to work on Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

[37] Dusty Welch, head of publishing at RedOctane, recognized Neversoft had a "10-year track record of launching a game every single year and being in the top of the charts" and felt that the development group "brought a better and deeper sense of music sensibilities" to the series.

[41] From that, a "pop up" three-dimensional version of the stage was created, and elements from the 2D concept art were added to determine the appropriate placement of set decorations.

[42] Texture of Couches and pixel shaders were added using the team's previous work on Tony Hawk's Project 8 to match the style of earlier Guitar Hero games.

[43][44][45][46] Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock features 73 playable songs; 42 are part of the main setlist, 6 are exclusive to the Co-Op Career mode, and the remaining 25 are bonus tracks.

In addition, the Career mode includes three guitar battles, one against each boss: Slash, Tom Morello, and Lou the Devil.

[47] The soundtrack features songs such as "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones, "Cherub Rock" by The Smashing Pumpkins, "Sabotage" by Beastie Boys, "The Metal" by Tenacious D, "My Name is Jonas" by Weezer, "Rock and Roll All Nite" by Kiss, "School's Out" by Alice Cooper, "Talk Dirty to Me" by Poison, "Slow Ride" by Foghat, "Barracuda" by Heart, and "Down 'n Dirty" by L.A. Slum Lords.

[48] It also features re-recordings of "Anarchy in the U.K." by Sex Pistols and "Cult of Personality" by Living Colour specifically for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, as the original master tracks could not be found.

[55] In addition, the compact disc soundtrack for the game offers a code used to redeem three exclusive playable tracks on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

[60] In September 2007, Aspyr announced they would be publishing Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X ports.

[64] As shipped, the game did not offer offline Co-Op Quickplay mode, a feature that was included in Guitar Hero II.

[72] At the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, Activision CEO Mike Griffith stated that Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is the first retail video game to exceed one billion dollars in sales.

[60] According to accumulated data from NPD Group in January 2010, Guitar Hero III is the second best-selling video game in the United States since 1995, following Wii Play.

[74] Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock received acclaim from critics and fans, although it scored lower than its predecessors on review aggregator Metacritic.

[10] IGN's review of the Wii version described the game's presentation and art direction as feeling "forced", and, as a result, less visually appealing than previous installments.

[113] In January and February 2013, the judge dismissed the case, indicated that the lateness of the filing of the lawsuit, about three years since the release of the game, gave him grounds to throw out the suit, though Rose stated that the delay was due to promises made by Activision for a Guns N' Roses-themed game as compensation for the violation of contract terms.

Activision had offered a free replacement remastered game disc that corrects this issue for North American and European releases.

[118] A class-action lawsuit over the mono sound issue was settled out of court, and Activision agreed to ship free faceplates for the Les Paul guitar controller to those who requested a replacement disc.

[119] Additionally, during the first few days of the game's release, players experienced difficulties uploading their scores to the official Guitar Hero website.