In the other main mode, GHTV, songs are presented with the note track overlaid atop their music video or from live concert footage.

[6] The player is able to select one of four difficulty levels which affect the number and complexity of the note patterns they have to hit, and the speed at which the on-screen display scrolls.

[14] Due to the size of the game relative to storage space on most mobile devices, Guitar Hero Live on iOS units requires a persistent Internet connection as all songs, including those that are normally part of the console on-disc soundtrack, are streamed from Activision's servers when played.

Within the Premium Shows, players competed in the same manner as with normal GHTV songs and could earn unique in-game rewards, such as coins or alternate skins for the on-screen note "highway".

[27] Activision offered a contest for players to win prizes by participating in a special "Shred-a-Thon" premium show, highlighting the addition of DragonForce's "Through the Fire and Flames"—one of the most notoriously difficult songs that has appeared in other Guitar Hero titles—to the GHTV setlist.

[31] The game's soundtrack include songs by The Black Keys, Blitz Kids, Ed Sheeran, Fall Out Boy, Gary Clark Jr., Green Day, The Killers, The Lumineers, My Chemical Romance, Pierce the Veil, The Rolling Stones, Skrillex, and The War on Drugs.

[31] Pre-orders of the game offered access to a time-limited premium show featuring three live recordings by Avenged Sevenfold, including "Shepherd of Fire", "Buried Alive" and "Nightmare", filmed from their performances at the Download Festival in England and Mexico City.

[35] There is no backward compatibility with songs or controllers from previous editions of the franchise; FreeStyleGames' developer Jamie Jackson justified the decision, explaining that Guitar Hero Live was a "completely new game" that existing content would not work with due to the change in core gameplay.

[39][40][41] Weak sales of Warriors of Rock, in part, led to Activision cancelling a planned 2011 sequel, and shuttering the Guitar Hero franchise.

[46] The developers had started from scratch to try to create new characters and venues that would be more reactive to the actual songs being played, to give the feel of a music video, but ultimately this proved too much of a challenge and had to be scrapped.

[46] Though the team had a two-year development cycle, it was closed down after Activision president Eric Hirshberg had seen the current state of the project at the one-year point.

[37] FreeStyleGames had suffered some layoffs as a result of the hiatus of the Guitar Hero series, though remained an Activision studio and financially viable due to their work for the Wii U Sing Party.

[4][5] The choice to use only three buttons also came from statistical analysis of past games, where about 80% of the players would never play harder than the Medium difficulty level which typically only required the use of three fingers with the previous five-button controllers.

[37] The "note highways" for the songs were created by both programmers and musicians using MIDI software as to map to each of the six controller buttons and the open strum bar.

The video footage is dynamic, and can transition between versions featuring positive or negative reactions by the crowd and band members based upon the player's performance.

[5] The first-person footage utilizes session musicians as actors playing the remaining members of the band, and is filmed using a Bolt robotic camera system, programmed to simulate the motions of a guitarist on stage.

[51] To enable smoother transitions between positive and negative versions of the band footage, multiple takes were performed for each song using the same camera motions.

To simulate larger crowds, these shots were superimposed on a combination of live footage from actual rock concerts and 3D models constructed by FreeStyleGames.

[53] This approach makes it easier to secure licensing rights, and fits in better with the current "throwaway culture" nature of society today according to Jackson.

[12][36][50][54] Guitar Hero Live was considered to be a game that can be expanded upon in the future through content patches, as opposed to released new titles each year which had previously led to the music genre decline in 2009.

Chris Carter of Destructoid considered the change a reinvention of the series, and though he had to relearn how to play the controller, enjoyed the experience and "the increased emphasis on chords and fancy finger-work".

[70] Matt Miller of Game Informer found the six-button layout was not any better than the traditional five-button one, but "nails a different dynamic" as it feel like one was playing more realistic guitar chords.

GameSpot's Scott Buttersworth found that he often ignored the motion video as he was too focused on the gameplay, and when he did notice it, felt it appeared "so campy [that] it borders on parody" as it "absolutely trips over itself to sell you on the idea that you're a totally super cool rockstar".

[68] Brandon Jones of GameTrailers believed it was difficult to "take the actors seriously" in part due to the duality of the crowd reaction as well as that the song was still based on studio recordings, sounding off in the concert setting.

[69] McElroy acknowledged the presentation can potentially be "cringe-worthy", but felt that the video was put together with self-awareness of this factor to make it more charming, noting some of the extra details that FreeStyleGames and the actors used to fully take on their roles.

[10] The GHTV mode has mixed opinions, with most reviewers praising the concept, with the presentation of the channels were highlighted as hearkening to the heyday of MTV, and giving the player the ability to explore new music.

[68][70] However, reviewers were critical of the emphasis on microtransactions, and though the game was "generous" with providing free Plays and other in-game currency rewards, this approach could still disappoint some players.

[68] Miller stated that the microtransaction "structure is exploitative", preventing him from easily accessing his favorite songs to play and making him frustrated with the game in the long run.

[73] Prior to the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016, Activision stated they will continue to produce content for Guitar Hero Live but have no present plans for another game.

The suit contends that Activision did not give a reasonable period of notice in a clear manner that the service would shut down, rendering most of the available songs unplayable.