Activision has suggested that some form of balance board peripheral is in development for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with news of the next
Tony Hawk game.
Speaking at an 'upfront' (an event where publishers show off their upcoming projects to advertisers) in New York, an Activision rep said of the next
Tony Hawk title, “You’re not going to be playing this game with a controller in your hands.” That could be easily explained away by use of the Balance Board if the game were a Wii exclusive. But it's not. The game will apparently be released on the Wii, PS3, 360 and DS in October next year.
The explanation of this statement that makes most sense, of course, is a peripheral along the lines of the Wii Balance Board for Microsoft and Sony's high-powered consoles. The DS version is more likely to be explained by the facts that: a) the DS technically doesn't use a controller and, b) when publishers talk generally about features for multi-platform games they don't usually mean for their comments to apply to the DS.
Activision has clearly demonstrated that it is not averse to releasing games with peripherals with the
Guitar Hero series.
It's possible, of course, that Sony and Microsoft happen to be independently working on such peripherals, but blowing the whistle on those would most likely get Activision shot in the face. It also defies Occam's Razor, which tells us that the most straightforward explanation is the best one - the most straightforward and least coincidental explanation being that Activision is working on both.
Another, less likely possibility is that the game will use the PlayStation Eye and Xbox Live Vision Cam. But... how many people have one and how many of those would want to play a skateboarding game using it? Never mind the complexities of coding such a game for it.
The comment fits with
those of Michael J. Griffith, president and CEO of Activision's Publishing Unit, in a conference call way back in May. "As for
Tony Hawk, we are reinventing
Tony from the ground up", he said. "This title will have two years in development to deliver the kind of breakthrough this franchise needs... we are very bullish on the kind of innovation this will bring and this won’t be your father’s
Tony Hawk".
The move would also give the
Tony Hawk series a much-needed edge in the face of competition from Electronic Arts'
skate. franchise.
For more from the upfront
check here for Call of Duty news and
here for word on the next Guitar Hero game.
Source: MTV Multiplayer