Tony Hawk Ride 2: Will You Jump On Board?

If you were surprised to hear Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith reveal yesterday during ATVI’s 4Q conference call that there’s going to be a sequel to Tony Hawk: Ride in 2010, you really shouldn’t have been. Yes, the game currently hovers in the low 40s on Metacritic for all three versions (we threw it a bone and said it worked pretty well). Yes, it sold only 114,000 units in its first month on sale according to NPD. And yes, EA, not Activision, owns the best skateboard game franchise right now and plans to cement this fact when it releases Skate 3 in May.

But this is Tony Hawk we’re talking about. It’s not going away. It’s as much of a cornerstone brand for Activision as Call of Duty, which was on shaky ground too until Modern Warfare revitalized it. If you believe Griffith, Activision spent so much time and effort developing Ride’s wireless skateboard controller that they didn’t have as much time as they wanted to work the kinks out of the actual game. Sure, you can argue that they should have delayed the game to address some of the playability issues. They didn’t so it’s time to look ahead to Tony Hawk: Ride 2. Surely it’ll be a smoother Ride than the first one, right?

anubus

hell no, my experience with tony hawk ride was so bad I will never, ever consider buying another tony hawk game.
http://www.babylonsticks.com zaland

There is little merit in comparing COD’s situation to where the Tony Hawk series finds itself at the moment. This controller was a wild stab at trying to save the series, perhaps taking a leaf from the Guitar Hero book, but the only real reason to do a sequel is to try and recoup some investment on the R&D and manufacturing of the controller. A contractual obligation with Hawk might also have a role in this, but it looks like Activision’s gamble did not pay off and the series in in really big trouble.