14 DAY TRIAL // Skateboarding games have been around for quite some time, largely due to the involvement of skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, who lent his name and likeness to a video game franchise and really took the world by storm.
Now the series is trying once again to reinvent itself, through the release of Tony Hawk: Ride, which will arrive October 13 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii. Developed by Robomodo and set to be published by Activision, the title will come with an innovative skateboard peripheral that will recreate one of the most realistic skateboarding experiences ever.
Speaking with IndustryGamers, one of the studio's executives, Joshua Tsui, has revealed once more that many other titles that will make use of the peripheral will be revealed, meaning that a $120 investment in both the board and a copy of Tony Hawk: Ride will pay off in the near future.
“Internally, we have a bunch of game ideas that are very unexpected, that people would never think about, that would work great with it,” Tsui said. “So we look at it less like a peripheral and it's almost like a platform unto itself. Nothing against Guitar Hero – it's a great game – but a guitar's a guitar and this board really has an immense amount of flexibility behind it.”
The Robomodo executive also reveals that, as the Ride project is entering its final stages, the whole team is thinking about tackling new things while the possibility of a sequel to Ride is also very important. “Obviously, we're very focused on getting this done, but being the creative types that we are, we're always writing up new game proposals and things we want to do. It's just a matter of timing. With Tony Hawk: Ride finishing up we have to think about the sequel to the game and where that fits into our schedules. It's a lot of juggling at this point.”
So it seems that, even though there is quite some time before Tony Hawk: Ride will be launched around the world, things are already shaping up around a sequel and around more titles that might use the skateboard peripheral in the near future.