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‘Disney Infinity 3.0’ and ‘Guitar Hero Live’ Are Both Out For The Apple TV – The Latter Requires the Plastic Guitar

Guitar Hero LiveIf you have an Apple TV, as of today you have two pretty big games to play, provided you can afford to pay quite a bit more than for your usual iOS fare. Disney Infinity 3.0 boasts a console-quality experience (but of the previous generation). The starter pack costs $100 and includes Anakin Skywalker and Ashoka Tano figures, which I know are two of the crowd favorites. There’s also a Star Wars: Twilight of the Republic Play Set piece, a Bluetooth Disney Infinity base, a web code card for mobile and PC devices, and a Steelseries Nimbus Wireless Controller. That last part makes the Starter Pack worth it if you don’t already have a controller for your Apple TV.

The games comes with the Battle of Yavin from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, and Disney Infinity 3.0 is compatible with all figures and power discs from Disney Infinity 1.0 and 2.0. According to producer Sean Patton, Apple’s Metal made it was very easy for the developers to use console assets in the Apple TV version of the game, which bodes well for future Apple TV games. You can buy the starter pack from an Apple Store near you.

The other, more controversial release today was the Apple TV version of Guitar Hero Live. The game has been received very well both on consoles and on mobile, so many have been excited to play the game on the Apple TV. If you were planning on getting the new guitar accessory, then all is well for you; if you were hoping to simply play the game using your smartphone or Siri remote, you are out of luck as the game requires the plastic guitar to play. So, in order to enjoy Guitar Hero Live, you’ll need to buy the guitar controller and unlock the full game (you can get both the full game and the guitar for $99 from Amazon).

The other very interesting aspect of Guitar Hero Live is that the game in a way bypasses Apple’s rule that Apple TV games shouldn’t require an MFi Controller and should be playable with the Siri remote. Perhaps Apple’s rules are as stringent as we originally thought or perhaps Activision made the case that the game can’t be enjoyed without the guitar controller (which, also, isn’t technically an MFi controller). No matter the reason, this is a very interesting precedent.

[via GameSpot and 9 to 5 Mac]