Neversoft off Tony Hawk series

Studio president Joel Jewett tells hometown newspaper that "It's time for someone else to add fresh ideas" to skating franchise; Chicago-based Robomodo top suspect.

After months of speculation, Neversoft Entertainment cofounder and president Joel Jewett has confirmed that his studio is no longer developing Tony Hawk games. Speaking with his hometown newspaper, the Great Falls Tribune, the Montana native confirmed that the studio has bid farewell to the series that put it on the map.

Montana and Woodland Hills' favorite son Joel Jewett.
Photo credit: Joel Jewett

"It's probably best for the franchise... It's time for someone else to add fresh ideas to it," Jewett told the Tribune. Located in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills, Neversoft is now squarely focused on the Guitar Hero franchise, which it took over after original developer and current Rock Band studio Harmonix was bought by MTV games in 2006.

[UPDATE] On Monday, Activision confirmed that Neversoft was no longer working on the Tony Hawk franchise. "It's time for a new direction," said a rep who declined to comment on the series' new developer. The top suspect is indie shop Robomodo, founded last year by refugees from the closures of EA Chicago and Studio Gigante. According to the shop's Web site, it is hard at work on "a high-profile extreme sports title for Activision Blizzard."

The aforementioned game was long suspected to be Tony Hawk Adrenaline, a name first heard last June via an infamous megaleak by the market-research firm Intellisponse. The unauthorized info dump, which preemptively revealed Xbox Live avatars and Guitar Hero World Tour's neckslide, said the new game would urge PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC owners to "put down the controller, step on the board, and feel the sensation of going big. ... Shift your weight to turn and balance grinds, kick back on the tail of the board to ollie, and lean into airs to pull off huge spins."

Though Activision remained conspicuously silent about the Intellisponse leak, Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith announced last May that the forthcoming game "won't be your father's Tony Hawk. … We're very bullish on the kind of innovation this will bring." Last month, an Activision presentation confirmed that players would not use their hands to play the next Tony Hawk game. Finally, Hawk himself dropped a major hint, telling GameSpot sister site CNET that the next console games to bear his name would incorporate accelerometer technology sometime later this year.

273 Comments

  • Nicksta101

    Posted May 11, 2009 8:13 am PT

    Project 8 was a car crash for crying out loud. I miss THPS4 and THUG.

  • DarkAxe54

    Posted Apr 12, 2009 3:18 pm PT

    mitchd3 what the hell are you talking about? THUG 2, American Wasteland and Proving Grounds were the worst ones. THUG, Pro Skater 4, 3, and Project 8 were the best. I think the Skate franchise should add in freestyle, and have Rodney Mullen switch to Skate, cuz as unrealistic as it is, Rodney shouldnt we condoning it

  • triangle_button

    Posted Apr 2, 2009 3:21 am PT

    Yeh this was gonna happen. I bet if Tony Hawk could choose he would put his name on EA's Skate series. The whole TH franchise started because he wanted to make a true skateboarding game, and when the first one came out that was the case; there was nothing to compare it with!

    I'm pretty sure that as a skater himself, he would rather play skate 2.

  • mitchd3

    Posted Mar 26, 2009 11:16 am PT

    THAW,THUG1,THPS3 , and THPS4= best skateboarding games ever made period.

  • mitchd3

    Posted Mar 26, 2009 11:09 am PT

    i can't believe it's going to end like this.Everything went from bad to worse after American Wasteland when Project 8 was released.

  • Sharishi

    Posted Mar 23, 2009 8:22 am PT

    i have played almost every Tony Hawk series game and these were one of the best games i have ever played... Its a shame that the series has ended

  • screamandroar

    Posted Feb 15, 2009 2:14 pm PT

    thats surprising, oh well, after THPS 4 everything got god-awful

  • Nicksta101

    Posted Jan 31, 2009 6:05 am PT

    Martin is damn right. American Wasteland and Proving Grounds I haven't played yet but what I don't under stand is this: Why continue working on a franchise which has been the same since it came out (think about it, the only changes are new songs and new instruments) it's the same bloody game which is always awful? Why not ressurect a dying franchise into what it was, massive amounts of fun. Save us from the Anti-Christ of skating games= SKATE!

  • Martin-2-5-9

    Posted Jan 21, 2009 12:08 pm PT

    After Tony Hawks Underground 2; I felt like the series went downhill. I remember being a young child and playing THPS2 for hours on end, and they never got boring to me. Proving ground was dreadful. I hope to see a new arcade style Tony Hawks game, similar to One and two. That would take me back 10 years.

  • gregolian

    Posted Jan 16, 2009 3:24 pm PT

    i agree with hello12367890... i want another mat hoffman or dave mirra game.

  • kakarote22

    Posted Jan 15, 2009 8:40 pm PT

    Skate is better and Thrasher was better...no prepherial will save a medocre game.

  • Nintendo2Brawl

    Posted Jan 15, 2009 10:57 am PT

    yeah who cares that much if the game goes down hill nobody will probably even notice. Except maybe Tony Hawk............

  • funnysplay

    Posted Jan 14, 2009 3:25 pm PT

    This isn't bad or good news for me. I havn't played a Tony Hawk
    game since Playstation1, so i could give a care less about what happens to it.

  • Timstuff

    Posted Jan 13, 2009 3:13 pm PT

    So let me get this straight: Neversoft has gone from overmilking a franchise they created to the point where not even they want to touch it, to overmilking a franchise that Harmonix created? Thumbs up for progress!

  • sambob530

    Posted Jan 13, 2009 11:06 am PT

    That's GH: Metallica on the screen behind him

  • Cabal23

    Posted Jan 13, 2009 11:04 am PT

    Tony Hawk has Madden syndrome. What makes them think we need a new version every year? It is a skating game. I think it has been done to death and they have eeked everything out of it. Glad to know Neversoft know when a well has run dry.

  • BulletsnOctane

    Posted Jan 13, 2009 10:42 am PT

    @ Evilseed18,

    Re-read my comment, because you totally misunderstood everything I said. And just because Skate is good for you, doesn't mean it's good for everyone.


    I never said one was better than other, I said TH was a lot more "FUN", for me and apparently a lot of others as well.

  • Hott-FuzZ

    Posted Jan 13, 2009 10:10 am PT

    They really cant compete with skate so its about time they gave up. The last good tony hawk was THUG 1, it all sucked after that. They had a great run though, loved those games.

  • sk8erwarlock

    Posted Jan 13, 2009 8:26 am PT

    neversoft+tony hawk series=thing that turned me into having hundreds of wasted hour until i finally got onto a board

  • FallenOneX

    Posted Jan 13, 2009 7:42 am PT

    I haven't owned a TH game since 4, and even then i was pretty much done with it. The last one i played was the one that was released the same year as Skate, not even worth giving a name. I can see why people dislike Skate, there's no way to just hit a ramp, tap a few buttons, and pull off a 100,000 point trick. Damn you Skate, for not letting people do a 360kickflipdnolliecoffin grind off a baggage rail through a window onto a jet going down the runway. to each their own, but I hope TH gets it's act together by the time Skate 3 is announced, I'm already committed to the Skate 2 demo right now.

  • Willy-Wilks_777

    Posted Jan 13, 2009 7:23 am PT

    Old tony hawk games at the time were just one of the best games to game out. I think that the new tony hawk game will not flow well with a skateboard peripheral. I think that is going OTT. I think they should join all of the old levels from Tony Hawks 1 - underground 2 then add some new levels and you can drive vehicles like underground 1 and you can use the airport level to go to levels such as london and barcelona etc. That would be awesome and add an interesting story as well.

  • Mauller

    Posted Jan 13, 2009 4:20 am PT

    Anyone else surprised that Joel keeps a gun at the office?

  • hello12367890

    Posted Jan 13, 2009 3:53 am PT

    how about some buddy brings back dave mirra or matt hoffman.

  • Tranceplant

    Posted Jan 13, 2009 1:31 am PT

    The Tony Hawk games were awesome but it had to end someday...
    good memories on Dreamcast and Playstation...

  • Evilseed18

    Posted Jan 13, 2009 1:27 am PT

    hey bullets honestly how can you say that skate isn't ten times better than the last tony hawk game which was crap by the way, way better flow better graphics and a whole lot more realistic than TH, come on give credit to Ea for trying to simulate a skateboarding game. Take it from a skater who knows video games tony hawk was good in the first two of the series but come on they have never tried to "Simulate" skateboarding like Skate has

  • EfKo

    Posted Jan 13, 2009 1:24 am PT

    great news! Well, to be honest with you, after THUG2, the rest of them were failures. Let's hope the new game will be better!

  • BulletsnOctane

    Posted Jan 13, 2009 12:06 am PT

    Tony Hawk games were pretty good, if not excellent, when they first came out. Lately, the games lacked everything that it was. One thing: fun.


    Tony Hawk games were always easy to get the hang of, and were a ton of fun. I'm glad these wasters decided to call it quits with this franchise, and in their own words, "let someone else to add fresh ideas to it". Good for us, because they've really butchered some of them recently, as well as his name.


    Skate's OK, there's still room for growth, but I don't think it will ever be as much fun as the classic Hawk's. BUT, that's something we'll have to wait and see.


    It has a good flow about it (Skate), it's just not as fun, to me. That doesn't make it horrible, it just makes it less enjoyable, for me.


    That said. I hope the next installment isn't such a disappointment (TH). I also hope whomever decides to take it on actually cares about the project, because it's gotten to be a bit ridiculous.

  • RAVEZero

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 11:47 pm PT

    @Media_Mind: Agreed. I played Skate...loved the concept, but the realism made me miss the arcade-type insanity of TH. American Wasteland was the last best Hawk game...I pray this will take it in a new direction.

  • socal982

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 7:41 pm PT

    NeverSoft helped create a Genre and then Drop the Ball with Hit and Miss Titles thereafter, they should of just stuck to the formula, KISS, keep it simple stupid.

  • daabulls23

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 7:29 pm PT

    The earlier Tony Hawks were fantastic. Now they are just monotonous. Looks like Skate has really given Neversoft some time to think.

  • -KU-

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 7:13 pm PT

    Omg people got PS3's and 360's so we wouldnt have to get up and move so we don't get Wii crap
    So we get to chill on the couch with our buddies playing each other.
    Real setback and disappointment for me. Anyone else?

  • Media_Mind

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 6:42 pm PT

    well, hopefully tony hawk will be reborn!

  • mYslead

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 6:32 pm PT

    tony hawk was fine until skate came out ...
    then tony hawk was just a big joke.

  • S_Pac_316

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 6:30 pm PT

    Yep, now they can concentrate on over saturating the Guitar Hero franchise some more.

  • mikedude_01

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 6:25 pm PT

    Neversoft has a new franchise to drive into the ground so they have no time for Tony Hawk.

    amirite?

  • assassin973

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 5:26 pm PT

    That is smart of them.I hated the tony hawk games.I just didn't think they did that good on them.I didn't like them much.yes, neversoft you are smart for guitar hero.And activision,GREAT GAME!

  • supercrazyhorse

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 4:58 pm PT

    You know, I just don't understand why people are tired of Guitar Hero having too many games... I honestly could care less. The formula works and as long as they keep adding new features and new songs and don't screw with the formula, I don't see what the problem is. Who cares if they're milking the franchise? If people begin to get tired of that then the market will reject the games and Activision will have to try a different strategy. So far, it looks like people want to play Guitar Hero.

  • Vancha_15

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 4:07 pm PT

    Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 was brilliant, it was pretty much downhill from there, though, i thought. Game developers in general have a notorious ability to try and improve things, but just make it worse. Tony Hawks games never really needed a story, to me it started to feel tacky and just lame when they included one. Another thing is i wish they would stop trying to 'immerse' you in the game with all this motion / weight sensing crap. I like playing games with controllers (yes i do also enjoy excercise). The wii is gimmicky and glitchy, and even if it wasn't i'd still opt for the controller because it just feels more fun to me. I believe the N64 was, and still is, the console with the most fun to be had, and im bored with all these shooting games. There's no need for so many. Does anyone agree with me with any of this?

  • -SiiLeNCE-

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 4:00 pm PT

    this is like the biggest reason why i hate activision. all they do is make games that make them profit they never do anything for the fans or because they have a passion for making games. as soon as the cash cow runs out of milk they just dump it off. i knew this was gonna happen 4 years ago and i guarantee guitar hero is gonna do the same thing. theyre already up to 2 games a year on guitar hero. they treat franchises like fads.

  • red192837465

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 3:48 pm PT

    oh yeah more crap to buy to play another game that could be played on a controller and be the same. Good for the series though hope it works out. Just wish they would use a regular controller

  • gnbfd

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 3:28 pm PT

    good for them *prays they do the same with Guitar Hero*

  • gandalf_storm

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 3:16 pm PT

    i think its time to call it quits on TH games, even though the new SKATE game look good, its still TH pretty much with a different control scheme, and moving ramps about is hardly new, like most sporting games its all getting a bit stale...

  • jtthegame316

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 3:07 pm PT

    it is a good series but then there is only so many times you can put out a skate borading game.

  • hyperknight9

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 3:02 pm PT

    probably best for neversoft theres no beating skate now

  • x-wing20

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 2:47 pm PT

    I'm intrigeted

  • mastriania

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 2:47 pm PT

    Although I've played every TH title (and for up to the first five or six games I completed them), it's true that they've become bland and redundant. Skate really beat down Tony Hawk too because it's way more difficult to stomp tricks. Who couldn't sit and play a TH game for a few hours and then nail like a 500,000 point trick with two dozen different grinds in it? It was too ridiculously easy. This is good news!

  • soundsofsilence

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 2:32 pm PT

    The series should have been dropped after T.H.U.G 2

  • WarGrad

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 2:29 pm PT

    I haven't played TH since American Wasteland, I played Skate and was put off by the STEEP learning curve. They need to go back to the basics and make a TH game with what "brought him to the dance".

  • khariss

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 2:16 pm PT

    lol why do i think the new direction will be copy skate

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