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.
Ghost of Yotei actor Erika Ishii's journey from fan to performer shaped their views on developers' rights as workers.
This wouldn't be an issue if western devs actually made games for the audience they have instead of the one they WISHED they had.
The people they're catering to don't buy games. They will like the tweets but never buy your games, because they aren't, nor will they ever be, gamers.
Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter believes the next Xbox console might be already dead due to Microsoft embracing Game Pass at $30.
You know the world is f’d up when Michael Pachter has given up cheerleading Xbox.
The crazy part is that this crazy fool was saying that Sony was doomed (or in his words 'going to be run over by Microsoft') because of GamePass after the Activision Deal. He was the one telling them to embrace GamePass and now that its killed them he is acting like he never said that.
You know the world is f'd up when investors listen to Michael Patchtcher after the advice "Sony is doomed if Microsoft buys Activision and put it out on gamepass"and now he's saying "I Think The New Xbox Console Is Already Dead, They've Blown It by Embracing Game Pass"
I feel bad for investors.
It’s true what they say “even a broken clock is wright twice a day”.
In this clock case is twice a game generation 🤣
Wouldn't it be the case of Pachter finally agreeing with parts of us rather than we agreeing with him?
I remember vividly that back in the day when GP was introduced and shaped further, many of us were saying that it's a great service on one hand. But were also already skeptical, too, as to how Microsoft would be able to keep the service running financially in the future.
Or/and how it would affect studios and game development in general.
As of March 2026, I think we have the answers some of us anticipated back then, when it was still Pachter who had forecasted «100 million subscribers».
A lot of this is just basic logic and common sense.
How much does it cost to develop a game? How much does it cost to market a game? How much does it cost pay devs/publishers to release on GamePass?
How much do users pay per month/year on GamePass? How many users does Microsoft need to be subscribed at once for them to truly be profitable to where GamePass pays for ITSELF(i.e not including stuff like in app purchases that they would get regardless of GamePass' existence).
You would need a large amount of subscribers or increase it's price to a point where it's no longer a "bargain" for it to be profitable.... if you're asking me. For some reason Pachter didn't see it that way nor did MS' users.
Likely the next Xbox will have a premium price tag so they have some profit margin on the low numbers they sell. We all know that the bulk of revenue will come from 3rd party sales on other devices and perhaps some from game pass.
Not to mention the fact that if it does have steam, nobody is going to buy games off the windows store.
If they dont have free online, this thing is dead to me.
And even Gamepass flopped. The end goal of Gamepass was to be hegemonic, to kill game purcahses with subscriptions. But that never happened. Game sales are still thriving, Gamepass' subscriber count has stalled, it's costly for MS and studios and its price is increasing.
The purchase of Activision allows them to hide Gamepass' failure. Not suprising that gamepass was removed from Nadella yearly bonus, they knew they would never hit the targets.
the tinfoil hat is on!
You think they spend 75 billion to hide that gp isnt doing well? XD
They totally didnt buy activision because they got some of the biggest and most profitable ips on the planet, but instead they bought it so you can't say online that gamepass failed!! that's totally the reasoning fr fr
He never said any of that..
Said that it ALLOWED them to, not that it was THE reason for the purchase...
I am not a Pachter fan , but I have to agree...who would have though. It used to be to sell cheaper hardware that is subsidised by First party game sales in the first few years until you can reach millions owning the console and by that time you can cheapen your hardware because the tech have been revised. With gamepass on everything and developers losing sales that option is now limited. With the onset of more options for games and developers going for Gass gambling FOMO style games and dlc consumers have become rightfully picky. Add that to growing hardware prices and escalating ram and pandering to society... it kills a brand. Most og gamers are gonna find you out and stay away. Put on the pressure of companies demanding higher revenue for sales, the poor developer has no other option to put a new coat of paint on a copy of another successful game. Innovation , what we are looking for doesn't happen a lot because the danger of failing could lead to budget cuts and them letting you go...so you play it safe and make a copy of a copy. Yes we get genres and types but 80% is the same game we have had for ages. So then because you are scared you let them put it on gamepass and you know you know at least what you get.
Nintendo announced Friday that several of its long-time partners, including DeNA, will sell off some ¥300 billion in company shares.
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).