Activision Apologize for Tony Hawks 5 & Offers Free Content

Katie Joell from Gamerscore Whores writes "We contacted Activision in regards to Tony Hawks Pro Skater 5. Initially it was to review the game, to see if the game really was as bad as other review sites have been saying. But review copies have stopped and you can kind of understand why. When probing deeper we asked as to whether Activision are looking to fix the problems with THPS5 and Activision penned us an official response. The response is as follows:"

[Number-Nine]

and i was thinking about getting this...lol

[TomShoe]

They can apologize by actually making a proper skating game.

This is Goat Simulator: Tony Hawk Edition.

[RyujiDanma]

tony hawk should be apologizing for even approving of this trash

[JD_Shadow]

@RyujiDanma: I don't know how much input he has right now in the series. I'm not an expert in how these types of things work, but I think they could have it to where Tony would agree to let Activision use his likeliness for a certain number of games, or one game per agreement, or something else.

I would HOPE he wouldn't agree to endorse something this broken, but I would also think he might've agreed to allow Activision that right before they began making it. Again, no expert on how these licenses work, but I'm under the impression that he might've not been able to do much about it once it became clear how broken it was.

[KiwiViper85]

I'm pretty sure Tony Hawk, the brand, is separate from Tony Hawk, the man.

I doubt whether Tony Hawk, the man, has any input into the game at all.

[NeckBeardBSMTDweller]

Rented it, played for less than 1 hour. it was all I could stand. Looks awesome until you start skating. Game is CRAP. And im an OG THPS fan from PSX. Pathetic...

[3-4-5]

Even at $10 this game isn't worth it.

[just_looken]

I guss you missed they mentioned the game is using dedicated servers yet cod/tom clancey/mgo 3 is not? LOL.

A skateboard game can get dedicated servers but games with over 80k players nope peer to peer.

[UncleJerry]

Ha, I was originally planning on picking this one up as well. It really is sad when you can't even make what is basically a clone of past THPS games. How do you screw it up this bad?

[FastRedPonyCar]

Here you go. The last good THPS game we'll probably ever have.

http://store.steampowered.c...

[XBLSkull]

Don't need to apologize, they can still make it right by charging $10 for this instead of $60. I'd buy it for that price and I'm pretty sure I would be satisfied with the game.

[HaveSumNuts]

I feel sorry for whoever payed full price for this. Still so many warnings from the trailers you could see it looked like a ps2 game. I was addicted to THPS 2, 3 and Underground as a kid. Tony Hawk games gradually got worse and worse since then if people expected it to be good just because they slapped a "5" on the cover, they are easily fooled.

[DragoonsScaleLegends]

No it looks like a PS3 game, don't go all delusional acting like this game looks 240p. The graphics are far from the biggest issue for this game. THUG will forever be the best in the series and unless they base the gameplay on it they won't ever be able to make a good Tony Hawk game again.

[NeckBeardBSMTDweller]

Ewww your credibility went out the window when you implied that THUG was the best. How old are you? Were you in diapers when THPS1 and 2 came out? Those were the best. After that, shit, THPS3, THPS4, Underground, Underground 2, ride, HD, project 8, crap crap CRAP. Oh wait add THPS5 to the list.

[Immorals]

@redey3

Hell yeah. THUG2 had great skating, and humour on the side, just like skating irl

[Revengeance]

@NeckBeard

Underground is crap. You must be on something to say something like this. THUG was the best FACT!

[DragoonsScaleLegends]

@NeckBeardBSMTDweller

No the first Tony Hawk game I ever played/owned was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. I played THPS1 after the second but thought it was way worse so I sold it and never got into the first game. Then several years later my next Tony Hawk game was THUG and I thought it was improved in every single way you could improve a game. It wasn't until THAW that the gameplay was being changed when it shouldn't be but the story redeemed that game though. Also the only people who don't thing THUG is better than the Pro Skaters are the fanboys judging a game based on nostalgia. If I were to do that too of course I would pick the one I grew up on which is THPS2 but I'm not judging based on nostalgia and as I result I can see the great improvements with THUG/THUG2. THUG also happened to be the first game I ever played online which was amazing.

@redey3

Yeah I played them all too and even though I like the levels better in THUG, THUG2 is really good too. But if any Pro Skater fanboy will tell THUG killed the series which is simply not true.

@Immorals

Yeah it's great that they have that humor in them which feels very appealing to teens growing up trying to get into Skateboarding. The Skate series takes itself too seriously as a Skateboarding simulation which is why I'm more into the Tony Hawk series.

@Revengeance

No just your typical casual fanboy of a series they grew up on but abandoned before sequels with improvements released.

[Darkwatchman]

@neckbeard

I'm 20 years old and grew up on all the tony hawk's pro skater games. I played all 4 original games extensively and they were a huge part of my childhood. However, with that said, I think THUG 2 was the best. It was still Tony Hawk's Pro Skater in the way it played. All they did was add a stupid, childish, and funny story mode with ️completely insane and ridiculous missions like launching off bull poop or summoning the dead from New Orleans which added much needed variety to the mission structure. That and it added moves like I'm pretty sure the Natas Spin, one of my favorite moves to fool around with, wasn't introduced until THUG or THUG 2. I also believed THUG 2 had the best stages with the most interesting little crevices and secrets you could stumble across. It was a magnificent Tony Hawk game.

[Lulz_Boat]

we need a new SKATE. damn you EA, move!

[Kal-V3]

"Offers Free Content"
ah, the "this ought to shut them up" get out of jail free card for publishers.

Charging less for the game does not fix the game.
We gotta stop telling these companies that, "only if it were 10-20$ it would be ok". No! Charging less does not make the game worth playing.

I have not played it so i dont know what condition the game is in first hand but this goes for all games across the board. Indie or AAA

If we lower our standards for a "Deal$", then they know they can just charge less and get away with releasing a crappy game.

[BuildTheWall]

Apologize by offering free content that'll likely only make the game worse.

[PizzaSteve]

How about giving people their money back. Better yet stop releasing games broken like this.

I heard somewhere that this is the last Tony Hawk game under contract with Activision and I hope so. Maybe another company that actually cares about making a good skate game can continue this franchise.

[jay2]

this game was terrible, i got rid of it after 40 mins of playing!

[MasterD919]

Apologizing by releasing content they would have charged for instead for free.

Hmmm...Where have I seen this before..?

[AstroCyborg]

activision gone full ubisoft

[isa_scout]

This article is wrong. They only address the Patch that already came out to tweak the game and add content. Nowhere in their response do they state they'll be offering free content. I think the author read their email wrong. At least that's how I interpreted it. Heck maybe the author didn't know about the huge day one patch, but that's exactly what this PR statement is talking about.

[secretcode]

Unless the free content is an upscaled port of the first four Tony Hawk games, noooo thank you.

[X-23]

There is nothing worse than taking a game that had such a simple formula back in the day; which made it so fun and addictive, and turning it on it's head...literally. THPS had a good run though I guess ... when SKATE comes out I have this feeling that it's going to deliver in the categories THPS did not.

Sad really, me and my friend where talking about how the experience we had playing THPS3 online with one another was a overall much better experience (that song Imaginary Places by Bus Driver always looped in my head back then lol)...and that's really a shame, given all this technology they have at their exposure now, how seamless the Online experience for gaming is currently and how there are more than a few of examples in this category of what you should do and what you shouldn't do I don't see how they messed this one up.

It seems like this released too quickly after it was announced which means that this game likely didn't go through an extended period of play testing and polish work like it should have.

[MetroidFREAK21]

Maybe at $10-15 I'll take a gander...

[Godmars290]

If its so bad Activision of all companies is apologizing for it, how exactly did it go gold? Has testing become that disused?

[81BX]

Exactly. They knew what they were doing. I never like the court approach but in this case, i hope someone sues the sh!t out of them.

[138]

Free bad content to complement your steaming pile of bad content.

Makes me wonder how it got through MS/Sony cert. Was it just pushed through because it came from a big publisher?

[TheOnlyMastrx]

I loved the franchise when I was younger. I usually wait for most games to go on sale before buying anyways, so I will wait on this a little longer and see if they get it fixed.

This gen has had a lot of broken games at launch. Developers need to get their $#!% together, and Publishers need to not push the developers into rushing games.

[B_Rian89]

"Apologize" my ass. they knew the game was trash when they released it

[Jamaicangmr]

This is funny as shit. The only person who benefits from that game is Tony.

[Detox024]

I don't want free content you wanna make this right go give money to the skate team so I can have skate 4