The announcement and subsequent release of Guitar Hero Live did not amuse former fans and current fans of the series in many ways listed below.
- Live
- A common criticism from consumers of the main On-Disk setlist is its vast genre spread. Many people pander it as just a lot of pop and indie with very few metal choices, while others are more welcome to some variety in song choices. (not counting the obvious agreement that "Bangarang" is one of the worst songs on the on-disk setlist). Some game reviewers were more favorable on the On-Disk setlist due to it representing "the current landscape of music" rather than what it was.
- The use of live action footage is also a large area where the broken base is from, with people on one side saying the live action sequences can give a new sense of being a rock star, while the others prefer the 3d generation with fan favorite characters such as Midori and the generated stages that they perform on.
- GHTV
- The use of microtransactions is a very divisive implement in GHTV. On one side, there are fans that understand that Activision and FreeStyleGames need a way to make some money off the online mode, and have no problem with occasionally buying a party pass, extra play tokens, or Hero Cash. The other side, however, sees it as a hindrance due to people not being able to play their favorite songs repeatedly without wasting their play tokens or having to wait for the song they want to appear in the programming. The only middle ground in the issue relates to the people who grind away to build up their coins to keep buying Play Tokens with their coins instead of Hero Cash.
- The genre spread was seen as favorable to many people, with many choices for metal and rock, however, the base split with the amount of pop that was available on the launch day, with many people bashing on the fact that One Direction is present with "Live While We're Young". On one side, some people welcome it, and saw it as inevitable due to their influence on media (especially now since they are also available on Rock Band 4), others see it as a cheap attempt to appeal to the pop crowd due to the similar presence of Bruno Mars, Charli XCX, Calvin Harris, and The Vamps in the service.
- The Premium Show service tends to cause the base to break due to FreeStyleGames and Activision's choices of songs, with most of the indie acts added since the start getting the most flak. There are people who welcome them due to getting some more mainstream exposure, others argue that Activision and FreeStyleGames should be focusing on bringing more metal into the game. There isn't much middle ground, but the people that argue for metal spare some of the indie songs if the charts are somewhat difficult. There is also the issue of some notable bands being added, but a song of theirs isn't what the players wanted. One side welcomes the new songs, while others bash them. The notable bands that have had this issue include Def Leppard (included 2 of their 2015 album tracks), Bon Jovi (One of their 2013 album tracks and one of their 90s hits), and Wolfmother (People were hoping for more familiar tracks, such as "Woman" from their first album, but received lesser hits from them ("New Moon Rising" for Cosmic Egg and "Love Train" from their first album) and a brand new track from their new album ("Victorious").).
- The metal-chasers also bring another fairly reasonable point - that while some of the indier stuff might have gotten by in a full band game like World Tour, 5 or Warriors, Live is back to the guitar-only focus of 1, 2 and Legends; and thus picking songs with significantly less guitar effort doesn't fly. (The same people criticised the series for going indie party style when WT first came out, and really laid into it for 5.)
- Other
- The new controller did not amuse fans from its first announcement back in April 2015 due to people preferring the 5 button configuration. After the game was released, however, a lot of people began to grow on the new controller, admiring the challenge of shifting between different rows of buttons, while the other people continue to bash on it.
