On a conference call following Activision Blizzard's stellar 2009 fiscal performance, Activision Publishing boss Mike Griffith indicated on a conference call that the much maligned Tony Hawk: Ride is indeed getting a sequel later this year. The game was ripped apart by critics and had a miserable start at retail. It got to the point where Tony Hawk himself seemed to take it personally and was criticizing media while also tempting gamers to play his game by offering himself as an Xbox Live friend.
Activision is not deterred, however. The publisher believes that it can turn popular opinion around by really polishing the next game. "It took longer to optimize the hardware, leaving less time to optimize the software," Griffith explained.
While Activision is pushing forward with Tony Hawk, it seems that the publisher is finally starting to scale back a little on the Guitar Hero business. The music genre in general was down 46% in 2009, and just recently, Guitar Hero division CEO Dan Rosensweig left the company. Now, unlike previous years where Activision would produce a flood of SKUs (Activision produced 25 music related SKUs in '09!), for 2010 there are just two "Hero" games in the works - a new Guitar Hero and a new DJ Hero, both for later this year. So in total for 2010, there will be 10 SKUs in the Guitar Hero business, which should "serve a broader audience."
Furthermore, Griffith explained that Activision intends to save more money by not releasing any Guitar Hero games on the aging PlayStation 2. As DLC becomes a greater and greater focus for the music gaming business, it makes much less sense to support the PS2.
