Eight skateboarding games in as many years, across three generations of consoles. Will Neversoft-creator and maintainer of the Tony Hawk Series-ever stop?
Annually-updated franchises are frowned upon as much as relied upon, both golden calf and black sheep. That mix of familiarity and evolution is a powerful one, for gamers as much as game-makers, selling incoming consoles and propping up departing ones. Many modern, big-hitting franchises have managed to ride the past decade, but few manage to sustain a steadfast annual frequency without burning out or needing a fallow year or two to refuel both consumer enthusiasm and developer fertility. And Neversoft – the studio behind the Tony Hawk series, the persisting alpha male of the combo-sports genre – is still going at it, through PS1 to PS2 to PS3, from Xbox to 360; while there may have been trembles and creaks along the way, there's been no significant stumble, no wipeout.
After launching its figurehead skating title, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, in 1999 and maintaining a metronomic release schedule ever since (see page 69 for 2007's instalment, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground), the studio is showing no visible signs of exhaustion, regardless of how its less forgiving fans may sometimes feel. Just how does Neversoft manage? Continual staff turnover? Overlapping development teams? Iron-rod management and caffeine drips?
Sitting down in the company's cavernous LA studio, the answer begins to emerge before the question has even been posed: Neversoft feels close-knit, upfront and as laid back as it can get away with. Five of the studio's most senior faces casually gather throughout the interview in the building's demo room, with little formality or fuss – president Joel Jewett, director of development Scott Pease, art director Chris Ward and co-project developers for the latest Ton y Hawk title, Brian Bright and Chad Findley.
Square Enix launches Final Fantasy X 25th anniversary site, revealing new Nomura art, books, music releases, and merchandise.
Look I know VIII has its issues and all that but how on earth can the do big anniversary events with new artwork and merchandise for VII, IX and X yet VIII got sweet f*** all.
They could have given it something during its 25th anniversary yet all it got was a single Happy Anniversary post on their social media.
they should know that we are OG fans of VIII as it sold truckload as well. not as much as VII or X. I personally didn't like IX but X and VI are my personal fav.
Shadow Hearts 2 covenant is another game I love. I hope one day someone can make remake, I would be delighted
Final Fantasy VIII is great and you are always the first to defend it in the comments
LucasArts gave Jango Fett his own game in 2002, and it pulled Star Wars into a much dirtier, rougher, and more interesting corner of the galaxy.
The Wii is now a retro console. Let’s get nostalgic about an often maligned system.
Crazy to think the WII is to the Switch 2, as the NES was to the WII back then. 20 Year difference.
My wife asks me to bust it out (heh) everyone once in a while to play bowling and tennis with the kids. There was a ton of slop on it but some good stuff as well.
Wii was great but boy howdy did it cause Microsoft to go on a dark walk with the Kinect and the disastrous XBox One launch that they arguably never recovered from.
Not nostalgic for me.. I was there.. anyone who wasnt a little kid realized it was a gamecube with shit tacked onto it, it was the "joke" system and was well below even the switch in terms of comparing it to the latest machines at the time. The machine was well loved by young people and "casual gamers" who now remember it 20 years on, or in most cases more of its sales came in the 15-20 years ago range not right at launch- but again its not nostalgic for people who were "gamers" then really, just for those who ended up with one in their house, the games , graphics, interface and online features were archaic already in 2006.
Neversoft should really stop working one endless sequels of Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk games and try more new things like GUN (Not a great game but still a new IP and take on the genre).