14 DAY TRIAL // The Tony Hawk skating games haven't been doing very well lately. Electronic Arts managed to release a Skate game that pretty much outdid the Tony Hawk franchise in sales numbers, while Activision was more focused on its gigantic revenue creators, like Call of Duty 4 and Guitar Hero III, to put some new moves on the old skate game. But all that's about to change.
As Activision released its financial results for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2008, it also released a bit of information regarding the games it plans to make in the following year. And, apparently, a new Tony Hawk game is among them. The new iteration of the skating simulator will only target one platform, the Nintendo DS. As always, the developer is very hush-hush on details regarding the game, saying only that it will "utilize new technology not yet seen on the DS", whatever that means.
The above statement could be spun around to mean something like a new attachment for the DS, like the one Activision revealed for the Guitar Hero DS version, but more likely it just means that a new gameplay mechanic regarding skating, 360s and powergrabs is in the works, one more adapted to the unique control scheme that's offered by the Nintendo DS.
No new game for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 or the PC is planned for 2008, as the franchise needs time "to deliver the kind of breakthrough [it] needs". As always with games that are set far, far into the future, details were pretty hard to come by.
Mike Griffith, Chief Executive Officer of the Publishing division of Activision, stated only that "For competitive reasons, we're not going to talk about it today, but we're very bullish on the kind of innovation this will bring. And this won't be your father's Tony Hawk".