Last year, Tony Hawk: Ride was critically destroyed, but rather surprisingly, still managed to sell over 114,000 units within the month after its release. Its sequel, Tony Hawk: Shred, added several new features including snowboarding, but still performed considerably worse in regards to sales after its launch. In fact, the game was described as a “virtual no-show” with just 3000 units sold in its first week following its release. To many, it would be right to think that the franchise has run its course and should be discontinued because, well, gamers have lost interest in the once exciting series. However, according to Activision Publishing’s CEO, it’s too early to start declaring Tony Hawk: Shred a failure.
CEO Eric Hirshberg already stated he expects the sales to improve for the latest Tony Hawk title and has once again spoken to IndustryGamers about the declining franchise.
“I think it’s early to close the book on Tony Hawk Shred, because we are marketing it to kids, and it is a great gift, and the gift-giving season has already begun. We’re going to keep the pedal to the metal on that and continue to market through the holiday and hopefully we’ll deliver some proponents”
Hirshberg continued to showcase his hope and belief with the potential Tony Hawk games have and if the famous skateboarder holds the same relevance he did so many years ago in the skateboarding videogame genre to this day:
“The one question that I can answer, and remarkably so, is that Tony Hawk does really still have relevance and tremendous appeal for people. He is a lasting icon. He has that Michael Jordan-ish or Jordan-esque staying power, seemingly. And that doesn’t mean that other great skaters haven’t come up who are younger and more current, but he really is that kind of Mount Rushmore-level guy in that category, so that’s not the issue. I think we have to ask all the smart questions and make some smart moves in terms of innovation to see if we can recapture people’s imaginations.”
Last year, Tony Hawk himself took to social networking site Twitter to defend Tony Hawk: Ride and its poor performance as well as reviews slating the game off. However, with Shred showing no signs of improving its sales and the holiday period being the game’s last hope to pick up on sales, Hawk is nowhere to be found defending his latest game. In essence, who could blame him being shrouded with silent on Tony Hawk: Shred, though? Activision is undeniably being fairly optimistic if their last hope for Shred to shine is suddenly improving its sales due to it being the holiday season.
