Tony Hawk: Shred suffers the greatest sales flop in AAA title history

The latest installment in the once-mighty Tony Hawk series has launched not with a bang, but with a pathetic whimper.

The Tony Hawk skateboarding games were once some of the most popular sports titles around back in the halcyon days of Pro Skater 3. In fact, there was a time when a new Tony Hawk title would have been a guaranteed hit, much like the annual Madden or Call of Duty releases are today.

Those days are evidently far behind us.

According to the monthly NPD numbers for October, Tony Hawk Shred - the followup to the crappy Tony Hawk Ride - sold a dismal 3,000 units across the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 in North America during its first week of sales. That is an absolute abysmal launch for any game, especially a game in a series that once had such high brand-name recognition.

To put this in perspective: Another Activision title, DJ Hero 2, was described as having a "disappointing" launch, selling a meager 59,000 copies in the second half of October. Even taking into account that this includes two weeks of sales rather than Tony Hawk's one, DJ Hero 2's "disappointing" release still outsold the skateboarding title ten to one. That isn't just a disappointing launch, it's a thoroughly humiliating one.

Is it any wonder, then, that developer Robomodo was hit with layoffs? I mean, for crying out loud, guys - Nokia's original N-Gage sold more than that on its debut. When you're being outsold by the infamous side-talking taco, there is a serious, serious problem.


If I may be so bold, I would like to give some advice that is GUARANTEED to save Tony Hawks games.
A-HEM-HEM---
RELEASE THPS4 ON XBLA, PSN, AND STEAM FOR CHEAP, SAME SOUNDTRACK, NO STUPID PERIPHERALS, NO BLOODY GIMMICKS!
Done. Franchise saved.
DO IT!

Not to much of a surprise really. Considering when you said "Shred Suffers" I thought you meant "Shred Surfers" and I thought Tony Hawk went 'Pacific', get it? Neither do I, and the fact that Activision doesn't realize that what sells a Tony Hawk game is the THPS aspect. I loved the unrealistic scenario's and the funny unlockable characters and ridiculous combos, ALL while SITTING DOWN.

KAS--Will wrote: SITTING DOWN.

= game success.

If I wanted to use a realistic skateboard to realistically skate, I WOULD BUY A SKATEBOARD.
I want to skate in ridiculous places with stupid characters while listening to early 90's Punk Rock. I want to make a park filled with spike pits and lava. I want to enable gravity defying cheats. I want to play some HORSE or Graffiti or trick attack with my friends online. I do not care about a story in a game like this, i do not care about how realistic my controller is, i do not want this franchise to go in a Wii-like new direction where actual skating skill is required, and I do NOT want a game to teach me to do something that isnt playing the game itself!
Release THPS4 UNMODIFIED IN ANY WAY on XBLA and I promise I will buy it, Activision, even though I hate you, I will give you my money to see this franchise go backwards into the insanity again. Please?

Yeah, but they'd have to give the series back to Neversoft. Which Activision likes pushing towards letting developers take turns with a franchise.

KAS--Will wrote:Yeah, but they'd have to give the series back to Neversoft. Which Activision likes pushing towards letting developers take turns with a franchise.

Which is dumb. The original dev knows what they're doing.