14 DAY TRIAL // The high-definition re-imagining of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series of games has managed to see solid sales on the Xbox Live service from Microsoft since it was launched on July 18, moving more than 120,000 units. The developer behind the game sees this as a vindication of the choices his team has made.
John Tsui, who is the chief executive officer of Robomondo, told Gamasutra that, “By making it ‘lower risk’ we were allowed to take some chances which benefits both developer and publisher. The prospect of a fuller game is definitely on the table — it’s just a matter of when and how.”
Despite good sales, some critics were very vocal about their problems with Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD, but to Tsui the attacks are not about the objective quality of the game, but about the subjective nature of memories that many fans have with the original releases in the series.
The developer added, “We kept the mechanics the same even though they were 13-years-old because that was our number one priority. Had we changed it up and modernized it, we would have gotten the same criticism from the other side.”
With Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD, Activision allowed Robomondo to compile content from the first two titles in the franchise in a new, downloadable package, and the success of the game will probably mean that the other games in the series will get the same treatment.
The Tony Hawk series was one of the biggest in gaming at one point, but the lack of innovation and the reliance on complex peripherals has seen its sales drop precipitously.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD will be launched on the PlayStation Network service from Sony and on the PC, probably only via Steam, during the third quarter of this year.