Skateboard-controlled Hawk revealed

By Oli Welsh Published 4 December, 2008

Plus GH5, Bizarre's Bond, Modern Warfare 2.

Activision has confirmed a sequel-heavy lineup for 2009, including new Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk games, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and racing and James Bond games by Bizarre Creations.

The news came from an advertising conference hosted by in-game ads company Massive Inc, and was reported by MTV and Newsweek journalist N'Gai Croal's twitter.

Details were scant, as none of the games have been officially announced yet, and the conference was aimed at advertisers. There were no great surprises, but one or two interesting new directions.

Venerable skateboarding series Tony Hawk is going the way of the bespoke peripheral. "You're not going to be playing this game with a controller in your hands," said the Activision executive speaking at the conference.

We assume he means a skateboard controller of some kind. Seems like Hawk developer Neversoft has caught the bug from its work on Guitar Hero. The game will be released for 360, PS3, Wii and DS in October next year.

No-one will be shocked to learn that the next Call of Duty is returning to contemporary themes as we go back into an Infinity Ward year. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, sequel to last year's series high-point, was confirmed for an autumn 2009 release at the conference.

Project Gotham Racing developer Bizarre Creations, which Activision acquired last year, has been put to work on the James Bond licence. The studio is creating a "racing and driving focused" third-person Bond adventure, not tied in to any film, due in September next year.

Bizarre also working on an original racing game which was described at the conference as "Mario Kart meets Forza".

The next Guitar Hero was described simply as "Guitar Hero 5", and discussed as a very suitable franchise for in-game advertising. A mocked-up screen with a Burger King ad was shown.

No mention was made of the company's Blizzard releases, but this shouldn't be surprising - the fantasy and science-fiction themes of StarCraft II, World of Warcraft and Diablo III make them unsuitable vehicles for advertising.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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