As suspected,
not ready to give up on Tony Hawk Ride yet
Activision
has a lot to be grateful for, as the company had a banner year in 2009. Still,
the company is acknowledging that there is room for improvement and some of
that improvement will come in changes to both the Hero franchise as well as the
suspected news that company isn’t ready to give up on the Tony Hawk franchise
and skateboard controller just yet.
According to
the whispers that we are hearing, Activision will only be releasing two titles
in the Hero line in 2010. DJ Hero will be back with a sequel, as we told you
about previously. In addition, only Guitar Hero will be back with Guitar Hero 5,
we presume, although no one was ready to confirm that would be the next title
in the franchise.
Changes will
come to both the new Guitar Hero and DJ Hero that will focus on making both the
new releases more accessible and innovative in an effort to capture a broader
audience with the 2010 releases. While no release dates for either title have
been announced, it is a safe bet that they will both arrive before the
holidays. In addition, there will be no more Guitar Hero releases for the
PlayStation 2, according to sources who claim that the older system is no
longer generating enough sales to continue with releases on that platform.
As we
suspected, Activision will not be giving up on the Tony Hawk franchise. While
the performance of Tony Hawk Ride was not what the company expected at all, it
seems that for the first time the company is admitting that the game needs
additional refinement on the software side; and that seems to have been the
problem with the amount of time that developer Robomodo had to refine and
finish the title.
Expect to
see another Tony Hawk game later this year in time for the holidays that will
return with a more polished hardware skateboard and vastly overhauled software
to deliver a much better experience. While sources are not confirming it, it
does seem that this could be make it or break it for the board controller; and
unless they hit it out of the park this time around, it could be unlikely that the
rumored new Kelly Slater Surfing title will ever see the light of day.