As expected, Activision today announced Guitar Hero Live , a new iteration of the popular musical franchise created by FreeStyleGames ( DJ Hero ) coming at the end of the year on Xbox Xbox 360 and and PS4. The game will introduce a new guitar controller with six buttons in a grid 3 x 2 at the top of the handle; for this reason, will screen only three tracks, with picks that point up or down to indicate which of the two keys of each row must press.

According to the developers, this will allow us to play more smoothly by keeping your eyes on the screen and without ever having to move on the neck of the guitar to check the position of your fingers over the keys. So Activision illustrates the new control system:

" The new format ensures fun for players of every skill level.  For beginners, you can really feel the rockstar using only the last three buttons. The slightly more experienced players no longer have to stretch your fingers along the neck of the guitar and can use with two-row combinations that make to real agreements. Experienced players will have a challenge in creating combinations of fingers and complex arrangements that will give their new emotions. This simple innovation will make it easier for beginners to start playing and for more difficult to master. "

Another novelty of the title is the one that will be played entirely in the first person, from the perspective of a rocker that mob stages before an audience more or less wide; everything will be made through live footage that we will see real movies in local developers, with rocker in flesh and blood next to us and a screaming audience. And of course public and bands will react according to our performance, empower or starting to get angry against us: to get this effect, FreeStyleGames filmed twice each performance, a "positive answer" and the other "negative", allowing the game to pass from one to another depending on our behavior on stage.

In addition to the single player campaign, there will also be a multiplayer mode, titled Guitar Hero TV, that will allow us to play with friends in "channels" that transmit different music genres and also new songs without having to necessarily buy. Here will disappear but the audience and the stage: we will play while in the background playing music videos for several songs. The pieces vary from pop to rock/metal: developers claim to have wanted to include a wide range of genres. And at least for now, the guitar will be the only playable instrument.

These are just some of the bands that will be featured in the game:

The Black Keys
Fall Out Boy
My Chemical Romance
Gary Clark, Jr.
Green Day
Ed Sheeran
The War on Drugs
The Killers
Skrillex
The Rolling Stones
The Lumineers
Pierce the Veil
Blitz Kids

Bad news instead on backwards compatibility: because of the different "system" and differences in guitar, the game will not be compatible with previous tools, nor with the library of songs previously acquired by users. Certainly courageous choice, that might give away the advantage of backwards compatibility to Rock Band in front of a (likely) more innovation. Activision has moreover explained that it does not intend to make the new Guitar Hero an annual series: the game will be used primarily by the "platform" to play the content that will be gradually released online, and then will not let out a new title every year.

For now the information end there: we will update if they emerge news and meanwhile we leave you to play announce trailer and some pictures of the game and guitar controller. Good vision!