New Tony Hawk game might be made for “newer consoles”

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May 19, 2014

There is a "chance" that a new game in the Tony Hawk series will make its way to "newer consoles," according to the pro skateboarder himself.

Hawk participated in a Reddit AMA today, and a number of questions that came up were related to his hit video game series. Most notably, when asked about the prospect of a new game, he said, "There is a CHANCE of something in the future for newer consoles." Presumably by this he means consoles like the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U, as Tony Hawk games do already exist on the previous generation of consoles.

Earlier this year, Hawk indicated a new game was in the works, prompting longtime series publisher Activision to confirm that such a game is coming. However, indications were that it was a mobile game, which Hawk mentioned today. "In the meanwhile, we are releasing TH Shred Sessions for mobile devices (iOS, Android, tablets) soon-ish," Hawk wrote, referring to the endless runner we've already gotten a look at. "I'm going rogue with information at this point so I better shut up now."

In a later post, when asked if the control scheme used in Skate might be implemented in a future game, Hawk said, "If we make a new console game, I would prefer to keep the original control scheme. That's what makes our series THPS, and not a copy of something else."

The last original Tony Hawk game developed for consoles was Tony Hawk: Shred in 2010, a poorly received spin-off that came bundled with a skateboard peripheral. Prior to that, the last Tony Hawk game released for consoles that didn't rely on a peripheral was Tony Hawk's Proving Ground in 2007--the final game released during a nine-year run that saw at least one Tony Hawk game launched every year.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD, a downloadable, HD re-release of content from the first two Pro Skater games, was released in 2012. At the time, developer Robomodo's CEO, Josh Tsui, suggested something bigger could eventually be made, saying, "The prospect of a fuller game is definitely on the table -- it's just a matter of when and how."

Hawk answered some other questions related to games on Reddit today, including whether he's a fan of the Skate series. "I honestly rarely played them," he said. "I appreciated that skateboarding had come so far as a videogame genre that there was viable competition in the field though. And any game that had a Pixies song in the soundtrack is okay with me."

The soundtracks were among the most beloved aspects of the early Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games, prompting one Reddit user to ask Hawk about his role in selecting music. "I gave many suggestions because I wanted the games to represent the diversity and uniqueness of skate culture," Hawk explained. "And once Activision acquired Guitar Hero, the music licensing team got approvals much faster."

He also revealed his favorite Tony Hawk game. "[M]y favorite is THPS2 because it put skateboarding on the map as a videogame genre and many people have said it is the reason they started skating at all," he said.

One especially interesting question involved a choice few people ever have to consider when playing a game--did he choose to play as himself? "I always finish my games with my 'pre-made' character so that I know all of 'my' special moves and I'm ready for any random challengers," he said. "So I play with myself, so to speak."