The rumours have been rumbling for months, but on Wednesday game publishing giant Activision made it official: Guitar Hero is back.
Gamers will once again be rocking out on plastic guitars when Guitar Hero Live launches in time for the 2015 Christmas shopping season, but the franchise that created the music game genre is undergoing some major changes.
The most startling new feature is the game's virtual camera will be reversed. Where previous games have put the viewpoint in the crowd, looking up at the stage, Live will put the players firmly inside the head of the musician.
Using clever motion-control camera technology, FreeStyleGames has filmed real musicians on real stages. Large numbers of actors fill out the audience, and they react in real time to the quality of the playing — players will be able to look straight into their faces and see what they think of the music.
Play well, and the audience will cheer and dance. Play poorly and they will heckle and boo, and throw projectiles like plastic cups. The virtual band, played by live actors, will also provide feedback, smiling and jumping around when things are going well, and frowning and asking what is wrong if the music is not so good.
Also changed is the plastic guitar itself. These games have long been criticised for over-simplifying the guitar-playing process, providing just a row of five buttons where the frets should be.
Live will add a new dimension to the playing, literally. There will now be six fret buttons in two rows of three, meaning the player will need to shift their fingers up and down in addition to placing them at the right point on the guitar's neck.
The result is that the player will actually need to form chord-like shapes with their fingers, a first for Guitar Hero. Playing on easy mode will only use a single row of three, so Activision boasts that it will be easier for beginners to pick up, but much harder for experienced players to master.
Live will also change the way content is delivered. In the past, the game would come with a fixed list of songs that could be expanded by paying to download additional tracks. When Live launches, it will include a service dubbed GHTV, dubbed a "playable music video network".
GHTV appears to be a rotating roster of hundreds of songs, far more than the 50 or so that typically ship with a game of this type. Players will be able to log in, select an available song, and try for a high score.
Currently this seems to be the limit of the multiplayer offering: competing for the number one spot on each song's high score ladder. Considering the social nature of the genre, if two players can't play together on the same TV, it may limit the game's appeal.
Even so, there are other options. In addition to living-room bound game consoles, the full Live experience (even with the same guitar) will be available on tablets and mobile phones. Full details of how this works are yet to come.
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Live also returns the game to its titular roots, with only guitar announced so far as a playable instrument. Previous Guitar Hero games have included drums and vocals, and Live seems to have pulled away from the full band experience to focus on the solo guitar.
Clearly there is still a lot we do not know, and details will no doubt be released a little at a time in coming months, but so far this looks like a fascinating reinvention of a stale genre. Activision walked away from Guitar Hero five years ago as sales plummeted, and this may be the injection of originality it needs for a revival.
DexX is on Twitter: @jamesjdominguez
