With the nine main Tony Hawk games under its belt, creator Neversoft has relinquished control of the skateboarding series to another development studio.

"It's probably best for the franchise ... it's time for someone else to add fresh ideas to it," Neversoft co-founder Joel Jewett told the Great Falls Tribune.

Instead, the Activision-owned studio will continue to focus on Guitar Hero. Neversoft took over Guitar Hero after creator Harmonix was acquired by MTV in 2006, and has released three entries in the series since. A fourth, Guitar Hero Metallica, is due early this year.

Activision has long hyped the next major Tony Hawk game as something radically different, claiming that the game would be rebuilt "from the ground up" and "won't be your father's Tony Hawk", with frequent reports of a new skateboard controller.

The next Tony Hawk major entry is expected to arrive this fall. Some speculate that the Fight Night veterans at Robomodo are working on the project, as the company announced that it was working with Actvision on a "high-profile extreme sports title."

Details on many of Activision Blizzard's upcoming titles were revealed today during a joint event with in-game advertiser Massive Inc.

According to MTV, Call of Duty 6 is now known as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and is slated to arrive in fall 2009. As previously revealed, series creator and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare veteran Infinity Ward will return for the latest entry.

Furthermore, an in-game shot of Guitar Hero 5 was shown in a demonstration of Massive's in-game advertising strategy for Activision, showing a "Burger King ad to the right of the note highway." Past Guitar Hero games have used similar in-game ads.

Activision also confirmed rumors that the next Tony Hawk title will be played using some type of peripheral rather than with a controller. The skateboarding game will hit Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and DS in October.

An original James Bond racing title from Project Gotham Racing developer Bizarre Creations was also announced, and is set to debut next September. Bizarre is also working on an original racing title, described by Activision as "Mario Karts meets Forza."

Earlier this year, a marketing leak revealed that the next console Tony Hawk game might sport a dedicated skateboard-shaped controller. Now, Cowan and Company analyst Dough Creutz has weighed in, adding that such a device is extremely likely.

"We also view it as highly likely that the game will include some sort of skateboard peripheral with all SKUs when it ships, given the massive success (and higher price points and profitability) of Activision Blizzard's Guitar Hero franchise," Creutz wrote in an recent report.

The next major Tony Hawk game--referred to as Tony Hawk's Huck Jam, Adrenaline and Amplitude--is expected to hit PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2009. Publisher Activision Blizzard has remained rather quiet on the subject, only noting that the franchise will be reworked and "won't be your father's Tony Hawk."

"The extra year of development time and the opportunity for consumers to shake off franchise fatigue could contribute to better unit sales than the franchise has enjoyed in recent years," added Creutz.

The only Tony Hawk release coming this fall, Creat Studio's Tony Hawk's Motion for Nintendo DS, will pack a motion-sensor add-on and may supply further evidence of a peripheral-based future for the franchise.

The next Tony Hawk game on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 may utilize a motion-sensitive board controller, according to internal documents, rehosted at NeoGAF, from marketing research firm Intellisponse.

Referred to by three different codenames--Tony Hawk's Huck Jam, Adrenaline and Amplitude--the game is said to provide "the ultimate skateboarding experience" through an "intuitive board based control scheme." Oddly, the title is listed at a regular price point, suggesting the skateboard peripheral may be sold separately.

Tony Hawk brand owner Activision, which is listed as one of Intellisponse's clients, previously vowed that the next main Tony Hawk game, due out between April 2009 and March 2010, would be innovative and "won't be your father's Tony Hawk."

Given the error-laden nature of the document and Intellisponse's role as a marketing research firm, it is possible that this is merely one of many concepts that Activision has commissioned for market testing. That said, a motion-sensitive Xbox 360 skateboard controller was revealed by peripheral developer Qmotions earlier this year.

For the first time since 1999, publisher Activision will not release Tony Hawk-branded skateboarding game on consoles in the fall.

Instead, the company is plotting a release for the next fiscal year that will, in the words of Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith, re-invent the series "from the ground up." The company's next fiscal year runs from April 2009 to March 2010.

"It won't be your father's Tony Hawk," Gamasutra reports Griffith as saying during a conference call yesterday. "For competitive reasons we're not going to talk about it today, but we're very bullish on the kind of innovation it will bring."

Activision representatives had previously commented that series' formulaic gameplay would be reworked due to the strong performance of EA Black Box's Skate (PS3, X360), which outsold the ninth main Tony Hawk game 2 to 1. No additional details were provided, though it is assumed that series creator Neversoft is helming the project.

While there will not be a new Tony Hawk on consoles until next year, the company did note that a new Nintendo DS entry, developed by Vicarious Visions, is due out later this year.

In a financial conference call today, publisher Activision--soon to be Activision Blizzard--confirmed it is working on several new Guitar Hero titles and a new entry in the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance action-RPG franchise, along with new Spider-Man, Tony Hawk, and Call of Duty games.

Two new Guitar Hero titles will apparently be released between April 1 and June 31, 2008, according to FiringSquad. No details were released on either title, though the company did specify that a third Guitar Hero game will be released this fall.

One of those new Guitar Hero games is likely to be the recently-trademarked "Guitar Hero On Tour," which many have speculated to be the long-expected Nintendo DS edition. The fall release is most likely to be Guitar Hero IV, which was mentioned along with several other top Activision-owned brands in earlier financial documents.

While another release in the Tony Hawk skateboarding franchise has always been expected, Activision commented that the next edition will rework the series'... Read more