neversoft is busy making guitar hero I thought.

Also note that neversoft is really well managed and tends to not have a whole lot of overtime. So, this could potentially be a push by management to keep their work load closer to what they're used to.

Biscuitcleaver

I hope the game return to how it was in 1, 2 and 3, simple, fun, mission based with cool missions and objectives, no stupid useless plots, no free roaming cities and no walking!

zetopazio

Wow... Tony Hawk is a "long running series". Congratulations, Kotaku. You just made me feel really old.

WiglyWorm

Tony Hawk looks ecstatic about it, so I'm not worried.

Chief2BeaR

@jun581: pretty much. Belmont showed up with every weapon from like the first 3 Castlevania's put them in a catapult and aimed it at a tied down Dracula.

Bring on SKATE2!

zanzibarlegend

@jun581: THPS3 was good but it did introduce Bam Margera and the "revert" which I feel slightly destroyed the game.

JDizzle

@JDizzle: I thought 3 was the best one (if not, then tied with 2, which was awesome). After that, it was all a pile of dung beetles.

you're right though about Skate being the nail in the coffin for the series. Dracula got killed by a Belmont...a very good Belmont.

jun581

@Mamba:I'd be less dismayed if it doesn't suck.

Neversoft's let them selfs get into a well paid rut for years and years with THPS, so putting a new team on it could very well save it although at this point THPS is like Madden and will always have people who buy it year after year after year.

Foxstar Sixtail

Just come off it. Keep the mainline but make it so each time you want to add a few levels, characters and moves we can frigging download them for $10 rather than paying $50-60 so we can decide which levels to toss out.

THEN go produce a 'fresh' take on the series and there can be two continuities of which the buyers can choose.

majatt

@noliferuin (PSN): true that. 3 lost its charm created by part 1 and expanded by part 2....err...IMHO (sorry i had to put that in there in case i get flamed). *whew*

jun581

Why bother.. Skate won, one punch KO.

Pandaschreck

Started going downhill since THPS3, Skate was the final nail in the coffin. Can't wait for Skate 2!

JDizzle

I'm mostly just dismayed that they're making another Tony Hawk game.

Mamba

you know I know they peffer said choice, and it'll be nice to see new takes on the franchise that is hawk ^^,

karmakid

Couldn't hurt. The series has sucked for far too long.

Lazlo

RIP tony hawk series
1999 - 2007...

actually more like 1999 - 2003

SupaPhly

About time. Might do the franchise a bit of good for someone else to take a crack at it. Then again, might not.

orrin

suppose neversoft need all the concentration they can muster to kill guitar hero.

noliferuin (PSN)

Please dont flame me, but i really liked underground 1 and american wasteland.....THPS2 was my favorite though.

Chrinkster

Hmm, at least Neversoft can focus solely on ruining their next cash cow. I stopped playing skateboard games a long time ago when THPS started becoming the same thing time after time, sort of like an EA sports game. But if whoever is making the new game is able to make a solid skating game then it's only good so that Skate and THPS are forced to compete with each other and therefore make better games.

jihadjoe343

*yawn*

Wake me when (if?) there's real innovation in this franchise...

PissedPS3Fan

This is a great idea for Neversoft. They need a new developer that can come out with a skateboarding game better than EA's SKATE, and it makes sense that since Neversoft is very tied up making GH:World Tour than hopefully this new team can breath some new and much needed life into the series

JTmunny82

Sounds awesome to me. I'm happy that Neversoft is making Guitar Hero and former talents from EA Chicago are working on this game. . .

iNFERN0

Considering they are now working on Guitar Hero, it doesn't seem like a big loss to Neversoft. Hopefully the new developer will take a fresh look at the series and not create a Skate clone.

aka Bitter

Confirmed: Tony Hawk's Pro Skate 10, where the player initiates tricks using the thumbsticks, pulling and pushing in various directions and combinations with other parts of the controller to launch ollies, nollies, grabs, manuals, and flip tricks.
The turn of the franchise was brought around with changes to series such as Guitar Hero, which also introduced popular game mechanics readily available in EA titles.

okrangerbob

It's about time everytime i'd see a new Hawk series I'd get sick to my stomach. I stopped buying them since the Dreamcast....those were the days

Beatboxtaun

Tony Hawk 4 was the best one. Although I really liked the story for Thug. Thug 2 had great level design. THAW was garbage, Project 8 was ok, and even though Skate seemed to have won this round, I really like playing Proving Ground. Tons of stuff to do in that game, but the leveling system kinda sucked, and tehre was really no point in getting money, since most everything could be bought with a couple grand.

b0ogie

How innovative to change developers every 9 installments. I never understood the once a year thing for some games, it just makes me burnt out on them and not care. Anticipation works pretty well for game releases. Just ask Rockstar.

supercrap

given how simple EA SKATE's approach was, it shouldn't be a hard title to surpass. Needs:

1. better physics
2. better mocap
3. pivot modifiers (slow or fast)
4. speed-control for better stalls, liptrick to grind/stall
5. more boards (longboards, drop-carve speedboards, etc.)

rainofwalrus

of course they've been taken off of it. activision's got another franchise they need them to run into the ground.

AgainstOne

yaay. Not sure what went wrong, but they've gotten worse over the years. The Vicarious Visions developed entries on DS were great, but the console ones were awful. I'd rather they got the series instead, but.. hey, can't hurt XD

HikariOblivion

Guys, seriously. To where can the Tony Hawk franchise grow? Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games have never been about the realism, like Skate was. THPS games have always been about doing absolutely ridiculous stunts, throwing INCREDIBLY HUGE combos, and basically destroying just about everything.

They've already hit a wall out of which they can't evolve anymore. I say make better graphics, spend more time fixing the bugs, and throw in the stuff every single one of your games has had, except for the more ridiculous MTV shit.

Ashurahori

WOO! this reminds me that I brought my old xbox back from my sister's. Gonna play some THPS3 sometime this week.

Chewbenator

This was my favorite series for years, but once they started piling on extraneous features, it just stopped being fun. I'd like to see a return to the early days. No crass story mode, no forced pro skater cameos, no awkward pseudo-open-world mission design, and so on. Just give me a skate park with some passive objectives and let me decide where I want to go and what I want to do.

J. Kyle

Tony Hawk died as soon as they let Bam takeover the series and also when i played that Skate Demo for the first time i knew that the birdman had met his match. But at least i can still play the first 3 THPS and still enjoy it ya know when it was a good game............ Sigh I miss those days. oh well Stake 2 is going to be freaking awesome.

MURDERFACE

@Lazlo:

I don't know if it really sucked, rather, it just got stale. Granted, the last Tony Hawk I played was Underground, and I thought that was pretty fun. 3 is still my favorite, of the ones I actually played.

prmononoke

@rainofwalrus:

They could also add more beanies! Skate only has 1, which REALLY sucks.

dead_red_eyes

@MURDERFACE: - "Tony Hawk died as soon as they let Bam takeover the series"

Pretty much. Tony Hawk's Under Ground was a huuuge disappointment to me. They might as well have called it Jackass Skateboarding. So to me, TH4 was the last good game.

I can't ever play another Tony Hawks game after playing Skate. Skate has everything that I've always wanted in a skateboarding sim. Goddamn I love that game. Bring on Skate 2!!!

dead_red_eyes

The series lost something for me after Underground, which I thought was pretty fun and the last time the series felt fresh. Underground 2 was just Underground with more wackiness and American Wasteland and Proving Ground were just awful. Project 8 was all right, but still didn't feel all that great. I think Skate did what that game tried to accomplish and did it better in every single way.

Anyway, I'm glad to see there's a chance that someone besides Neversoft will take a crack at it. Maybe they can bring some fresh, new ideas to the table or at least go back to what made the series so much fun in earlier installments. I just wish the reason why wasn't because Neversoft was handed Guitar Hero to run into the ground with their cash cow-style development.

darthonyx

@dead_red_eyes: is that code for pot? lol.

rainofwalrus

Okay, so this is good news. Neversoft already wrecked Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero. Let's hope for a TH revival!

Americo

I liked proving ground.. Oh well, I don't want to see another skate because I was one of the few people who didn't see it as a work of art and rather just a boring simulator...

flukielukie

@SupaPhly: Haha, great correction.

AsWater

I think the Tony Hawk franchise needs a rest. I am not a fan of the game a year cycle. When a game in the franchise is being released every year it stops becoming "Oh, sweet a new Tony Hawk game is out." and starts becoming "Damnit all, another Tony Hawk game is out."

For a lot of games 2-3 year development cycles seem to be the sweet spot. If a publisher gets their games on that cycle and rotates their franchises so that they have something big coming out every year. I might start getting excited again about some of these franchises that have been milked to exhaustion.

I still like the Tony Hawk games. Problem is I play one, and by the time I am finished with it the next one is already out. It starts to feel like a chore buying the series every year. In the end I stop playing the series all together because if I want to play a Tony Hawk game, I can just play the ones I already have. No point playing a new one, it will just be more of the same thing.

Guitar Hero is going to die awfully fast for me, if it already hasn't. There are way too many titles in development. It stopped becoming exciting waiting for the new ones, and started becoming tedious.

RockstarLlama

@dead_red_eyes: Yeah i know Skate is awesome and I'm sure that Part 2 is going to be great as well hopefully fixing the minor problems from the first game and making it that much better. more beanies!!!!!!! LOL

MURDERFACE

@noliferuin (PSN): I think you called it, buddy.

KafkaTamura

Lol agreed..Tooo much of a series is bad!

motogp

I don't think the series has been bad just hasn't done anything different!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@MURDERFACE:
kinda sounds like comments from when the tony hawk series started, hmmmmmm..............................

freespeech