Professional Skater Tony Hawk No Longer Partnered with Activision
Legendary professional skater Tony Hawk has recently announced that he has cut ties with Activision and no longer has any control over the "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" brand of games.
Seemingly frustrated with people constantly messaging him about the state of the franchise, Hawk tweeted that he is no longer working with Activision and that there is nothing he can do about the current state of the franchise.
"To anyone asking me to 'remaster" old games, or complaining about [Tony Hawk's Pro Skater] servers being down: Activision owns the THPS license but I am no longer working with them," he wrote. "If I had the skills / authority to reboot servers or code games for newer systems on my own, I would be happy to."
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It should be noted that there does not seem to be any bad blood or animosity between the two parties and that they separated on good terms.
"To clear up a few things about THPS: I worked closely with Neversoft on our series to provide ideas & authenticity (without writing code), & I am forever grateful to Activision for 2 decades of support; my contract with them ended amicably in 2015. And THANK YOU to all the fans!" he wrote in a follow-up Tweet.
Tony Hawk first made a splash in the gaming market with the release of "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" for the original PlayStation back in 1999. Initially developed by Neversoft, the franchise received critical acclaim for being fun, entertaining, and often having a very good soundtrack as well as appearances from other professional skateboarders.
However, the series took a turn after 2008 when Activision switched development from Neversoft, the original studio behind the franchise, over to Robomodo.
Since then, it seems that every new entry was a commercial and critical failure. The last entry in the series was "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5," which came out in 2015 and is often considered to be one of the worst games in the series.
While Tony Hawk himself is no longer working with Activision, it does not necessarily mean that the franchise is dead. "Rainbow Six: Siege," for example, still has writer Tom Clancy's name associated with the product despite having died a few years prior to the game's release.
It also means that Hawk himself is now free to collaborate with some new studios to create a new skating game franchise. Perhaps something to come in the future, especially given the lack of any real extreme sports games out in the market right now.
