Was Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 Rushed Before End Of Licensing Agreement?
By Kyle Buis
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The latest Tony Hawk Pro Skater release is being hammered by reviewers on its release day, citing numerous problems with the game's performance and physics.
Videos like this demonstration from Eurogamer show problems with the game's collision detection and clipping issues—when the character becomes one with the ground and walls in ways that defy the laws of physics.
Numerous video game outlets, including Giant Bomb, have said review copies of the game were conspicuously absent from their inboxes. Typically if a review copy of a game or movie is held until the game's release, it's not a good sign for the quality of that title.
Since its appearance at E3, the game has flown under the radar, and there may have been good reason.
A 2002 press release from Activision, the game's publisher, touted a new licensing agreement between the company and Tony Hawk. The release celebrates the deal, because of the series' success:
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater debuted in 1999 and since then has been the #1 action sports franchise across all console platforms and hand-held gaming systems.
It's just the kind of investment a company would want to tie up for a few years—or in this case more than a decade.
Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) announced today that the company has extended its successful partnership with world-renowned skateboarder Tony Hawk through an exclusive multi-year video game licensing agreement that expires in 2015.
One wouldn't need to be too cynical to see a game released toward the end of an agreement that by all accounts appears to have serious issues as a cash grab. Especially since the last release from the main series was in 2007, while the last "Pro Skater" title was released in 2002.
And on a side note, can we please take a moment to appreciate the beauty of this photo: It's Tony Hawk receiving an award for favorite Dreamcast game at the Blockbuster Awards. If that doesn't say 2001, I don't know what does.
