Activision has admitted the failure with Guitar Hero Live, and has announced that the program will soon be shuttered entirely, and that gamers who bought into the service are entitled to a refund. The refunds are open to those who purchased Guitar Hero Live on or after December 1, 2017 through January 1, 2019 in North America.
The voluntary program requires those who wish to claim a refund to submit a claim form which includes proof of purchase. This can be a receipt, credit card or bank statement or other such official documents which provide proof of purchase. Although Activision will try to be accommodating with requests that lack such forms of proof, as long as you have more information such as valid account info.
Guitar Hero Live was released in 2015 to lukewarm reaction. However, that’s not the ultimate problem. The issue with the service came after a combination of issues led to the shutdown of the underlying Guitar Hero TV servers last year. Activision announced last June that it would be shutting down the Guitar Hero TV servers in December, and now we’re seeing the final result of that decision. After all, the loss of Guitar Hero TV saw more than 480 of the 500-song library being eliminated entirely from the game.
Now why did this happen you ask? Well, mostly due to lack of player numbers. Because if no one is buying the game, the cost of running the servers and renewing music licenses makes the entire business model untenable. Activision made the arguably right call to bring things to a close. However, gamers and fans of the long-running music games didn’t take this shutdown lightly. In September 2018 a class action lawsuit was even opened against the publisher alleging that marketing materials promising “an always-on music video network… running 24-hours a day, seven days a week” amounted to false advertising and that the shutdown was not “disclose[d] prominently and conspicuously” before it took place.
‘Customers may qualify for a refund if: they purchased Guitar Hero Live in the United States during the period starting December 1, 2017 and ending on January 1, 2019; they submit a completed Claim Form by the deadline of May 1, 2019; and their purchase of Guitar Hero Live since December 2017 can be confirmed by Activision,’ said the publisher.
