It is the first game in the series to be developed by Neversoft after Activision's acquisition of RedOctane and MTV Games' purchase of Harmonix, the previous development studio for the series. It is the third main installment in the Guitar Hero series, following Guitar Hero II. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (initially referred to as Guitar Hero 3) is a music rhythm video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision.
