EA Skate-ing onto DS, Wii Balance Board

Last week, Activision announced that its best-selling Tony Hawk franchise is being redesigned from the ground up. Though the publisher did not say so explicitly, a big reason for the reboot was that the venerable series lost ground last year to a brand-new skateboarding game, Electronic Arts' Skate. Skate outsold Tony Hawk's Proving Ground both on the Xbox 360 (458,000 to 160,100 units to date) and PlayStation 3 (127,600 to 67,100 units to date). However, the latter game still won out overall (770,100 to 585,800 units), thanks to being on three more platforms: the PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, and Wii.

Now, with Tony Hawk sitting out 2008 on all platforms but the DS, EA is looking to expand the Skate franchise by launching it onto two more platforms. Following weeks of rumors, EA finally confirmed that it is prepping Skate It, a new entry in the series "exclusively for the Wii and Nintendo DS."

Skate It will take the original Skate's twin-analog-stick control scheme and adapt it to the two new devices. The DS edition will use the stylus to "string together" tricks, whereas the Wii edition will turn the Wii Remote into a virtual skateboard responsive to real-world motions. In addition, the Wii version will also incorporate the Wii Balance Board that will be released with Wii Fit next week.

Skate It has not yet been rated or priced, and EA has given only a wide-open release window of "coming in 2008."