14 DAY TRIAL // We know that Tony Hawk, living skating legend, is continuing to work with publisher Activision on new videogames but until recently, we had no name for his upcoming project and little information on what it might be about. Now, fans of the skater have a name to talk about but one, which raises even more questions about what the publisher is creating.
A Twitter message that has since been deleted but recorded in the annals of the Internet reads, “Tony Hawk: Shred. There, I said it. Actually, I named it. Somewhere a PR team is reeling.” It seems the bravery of the skateboard star diminished when the PR team in question probably mentioned some contractual obligations related to not talking about an unannounced title.
Tony Hawk previously addressed the lack of success of the peripheral-powered RIDE videogames, saying that “I feel like the device is a flagship for other games. I think we can do another skate game, I think we can do other board-type games, surfing, snowboarding.” Gamers complained about the response time of the skateboard peripheral and about the fact that it's another plastic gizmo they must store in their houses once they finish playing around with RIDE.
The name Tony Hawk: Shred suggests Activision might be thinking about taking more than one extreme sport, which can be linked to the already existing peripheral and bundle them all into just one release. The company is probably hoping that offering a chance for the player to surf, snowboard and skate all in one package will lead to more sales than launching them separately.
The skateboard peripheral could also be linked with the new motion tracking system from Sony and Microsoft, Move and Project Natal, to provide an even more immersing experience. We'll learn more once Activision starts officially talking about the Shred project.