There was a point in time that Guitar Hero Live seemed like a good idea, with a live, interactive music network for fans to interact with. However, Activision announced that the party would shut down by year’s end, rendering most of Live useless. And one particular fan isn’t too thrilled with that.
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A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the publisher by a fan, who notes that the product was sold with false advertising.
The fan, named Robert Fishel, notes that Activision stated that the network for the game would be ongoing, despite the fact that it’s being shut down.
He believes that the marketing for the game led him to believe that the game would be “playable online indefinitely or, at least, for a reasonable length of time from the date of release.” (Apparently a few years isn’t enough to suit his music-playing needs.)
The fan also noted that the network, Guitar Hero TV, was falsely described as “an always-on music video network…running 24 hours a day, seven days a week” with “a continuous broadcast of music videos” and “new videos continually added to the line-up.” The marketing also notes that “you’ll be able to discover and play new songs all the time.” Obviously, with the network being shut down this December, fans wouldn’t be able to do that, instead having to root through the game’s very small campaign mode.
That said, Ars Technica made note of a particular warning on the box that Fishel might have missed. “Activision makes no guarantees regarding the availability of online play or features, including without limitation GHTV, and may modify or discontinue online services in its discretion without notice.” The same warning appears over on the Guitar Hero Live website.
It also doesn’t help that Fishel purchased the game nearly two years after its release, around September 2017, missing all the fundamental features at launch. Not to mention he only paid like $22 for it.
Does Fishel’s argument hold any ground? With that legal warning, not quite. And Activision isn’t likely to keep the network open, considering the game didn’t quite sell up to snuff as it was hoping. We’ll see how the lawsuit moves along, but, yeah, we could see this being open and shut, considering what’s been presented.
If you’re curious (and can get it cheap), you can check out Guitar Hero Live now for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Wii U. The network is set to shut down in December.
