Tony Hawk: Shred wobbles first week at retail

by Ben Gilbert on Nov 17th 2010 12:30PM

In a video game's lifetime, the first-week sales are often the most crucial, representing some of biggest numbers a publisher will ever see for a game. That's why Robomodo's second peripheral-based Tony Hawk title, Shred, seems to have gotten off to a grim start, selling just 3,000 copies in its first week at retail.

Speaking with GI.Biz, Investment firm Cowen and Company detailed October's North American retail showings (following yesterday's NPD report) and pointed out that another Activision October release, DJ Hero 2, moved 59,000 copies in its first two weeks of availability. For comparison's sake, those aren't huge sales for DJ Hero 2, but it nearly 20 times more than Shred. These numbers are perhaps least surprising to Shred's developer, Robomodo; the developer cut staff last month and is said to be off the Tony Hawk franchise.

Source: GI.biz

Tags: activision, cowen-and-company, dj-hero-2, freestyle-games, microsoft, nintendo, npd, playstation, ps3, robomodo, sales, tony-hawk-shred, wii, xbox

Reader Comments (57)

Is it okay to post "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

as a response to this?

Next stop: Guitar Hero. Shrek games. Spider-Man and probably within 2 years, Call of Duty.

@Milf Biggenson Do shrek games still get made? I honestly have no idea. And given the recent launch of CoD to millions and millions sold and rave reviews, I think we're more than two years away from it going the way of the dinosaur. (FWIW I haven't bought it yet, but probably will eventually).

I'll keep buying Guitar Hero as long as they don't go all-metal, even if I have to buy 3000 copies at a time. Sorry.

@Milf Biggenson

All it takes is one bad Call of Duty. Although I must say that the new one isnt too bad, I rented it because I refuse to buy an activision product that is not made by blizzard.

I did buy Black Ops and I have to say I'm enjoying it, but we must remember that Tony Hawk, Spider-Man and Guitar Hero were all once respected, hugely grossing franchises. Activision's penchant for churning out annual iterations only diffuses the value of said product over time and eventually the franchise becomes the very definition of diminishing returns (as the Tony Hawk game proves). Sure, 2 years probably won't be the nail in the CoD coffin, but we haven't seen next years installment by an unproven development company (Sledgehammer Games). These guys are advertising for employees and they've got less than a year to get this game out the door. If I were them, I'd be buying up all the pants in the area, just to crap in them.

The sequel to the game no one wanted didn't sell well? Get out of town.

Huh, I didn't even know this was out.

I think they should've noticed it was a bad idea to continue this "board peripheral" thing when the previous game bombed some time ago.

Cue 100+ Anti-Activision posts.

The "No comments yet. :(" void is hilariously fitting for this story. I almost feel bad for contributing to making it go away; but some spammer will do it eventually.

I cant believe someone thought that this was a good idea.

@Verb4tim

You mean the people who made it or the people who purchased it? Probably both

Though the online leaderboards must be pretty easy to rank up in!

@MLS

Sadly there are probably some hardcore Shred players that take the leaderboard serious.

Well, obviously. Every Tony Hawk game to come out since, like, Tony Hawk 3 has been increasingly more terrible than the last. Ride was wicked awful, and if Activision or Robomodo expected this game - and brand - to have any kind of favor anymore with consumers.. Yeah, they were wrong.

This isn't the end. There will be one last cash grab next year entitled "Die Tony Hawk Die!!!". Instead of a board you get a plastic gun to point at Hawk's virtual head and put him out of his virtual misery. Your avatar is none other than....wait for iiiiiiiiiit...Bobby Kotick (full mo-cap!).

The last good tony hawk game was underground 2, specially the psp remix.

Poor Tony Hawk...his games used to be so fun :(

Why can't they just make a normal Tony hawk game? I've been playing THPS 2 on my iPhone and it's fantastic.

@pete42

THPS is on iPhone?

sold

If it first you don't succeed, DON'T TRY AGAIN!

@StormEagle at*.......dammit.

I guess it got.... *puts on sunglasses* shredded in sales.

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

The first one with the board failed on all accounts, why oh why did they make another?

Idiots.

Honestly, I thought that they learned their lesson with the last title. I didn't know this one even existed. People panned the heck out of the last one and they decided to sell another board? Who the heck thought this was a good idea?

Also - who thought it was a good idea to give him a radio show on sirius? OMG is it lame to listen to.

And yet Bizarre is the developer that they are choosing to auction off?!? Am I missing something here or does this not make any sense at all.

Lets hope that Tony Hawk will be in the next Skate game instead of trying to do his own thing.

Argh! Stop wasting valuable natural resources creating this garbage!

@profeteer
I totally agree with you, there are so many better uses of plastic.

Last Tony Hawk game i played was Pro Skater 2 but damn that was a good game.

@ben linus

Oh my FREAKIN GOD SHUT UP!!IJ!:!!@!!11

Just stop with this "board" nonsense and re-release Pro Skater 2 in HD on XBLA/PSN! It'll surely sell better than this deck dreck.

Pro Skater 2X*

@Epoque

THPS2 HD.. I'd buy that day one.

@Faenix I don't know why you'd rather have 2 over 2X though. Sure the new levels sucked, but it had all of the levels from THPS 1 and 2, as well as female create a skater ... not to mention the graphics were already greatly improved over even the Dreamcast version.

Make it THPS2X HD and it's win/win.

@Epoque

I thought the control in 2x wasn't as tight as in the original Pro Skater 2. But, hey, 2x had "volumetric grass"!

Third time's the charm x.x

Next month/year robomodo will close.

id probably rent the game if i could actually play it with a regular controller. I'm a sucker for the Tony Hawk series

This seems more of a cash grab to attempt recouping some of the R and D cost of developing that dumb board. They probably bought back all the boards that didn't sell from the first and put new stickers on em.

@Dirty Bingo.

Next Tony Hawk is definitely going to be a back to its roots, retro-remake of the first 3 or so Tony Hawk Pro Skaters without a board controller.

If they had done that they could have been with Goldeneye and NBA Jam

Lol! "@Dirty Bingo."

I totally misread that at first...

They still make these games? I had no idea this was out. Too many iterations getting lost in a sea of AAA's.

Maybe Activision will finally learn from this and stop selling shitty sequels? Probably not though.

The board idea was a way to charge more for the game, by getting people to buy a wacky controller.

But the thing is, with that price, the fact nobody really cares about Tony Hawk anymore, and the fact Christmas is draining everyones wallets right now - its just a bad idea.

I think a Xbox Live Arcade / PSN remake version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skaters games wouldn't be a bad idea, could make good sells from what i think. Definitely better than this.

So, let me get this straight:

The problem is not with Activision ordering these horrid sequels, but with the poor dev who is tasked with churning them out?...

Instead of laying off / firing them, they should look internally at the bonehead Activision execs who are ordering these in the first place.

I don't know what's more funny the fact that it sold such a little amount or that that many people bought it in the first place.

What a waste of 2-3 years spent developing these two games.

Hey Joystiq,
Please make a review of this.
^_^

I've.... honestly never even heard of this before.

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Tony Hawk Shred

Tony Hawk: Shred wobbles first week at retail

Reader Comments (57)

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:32PM Milf Biggenson said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:56PM Omenege said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:59PM jsx92 said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:34PM Dirty said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 2:00PM Milf Biggenson said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:32PM Cleric said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:35PM Ample Salty said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:36PM Cafecito said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:36PM thisredengine said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:38PM MLS said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:40PM Verb4tim said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:00PM MLS said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:31PM The1stMJC said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:41PM Jerk Face said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:45PM TheBatman4141 said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:46PM 182 said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:47PM Ospov said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:49PM pete42 said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 3:56AM GewurztraminerX said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:52PM StormEagle said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:53PM StormEagle said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:54PM Verb4tim said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:56PM DigitalFortress said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 12:57PM Duke said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:00PM pessimistically optimistic said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:03PM ungeheier said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:03PM profeteer said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 3:24PM KyGuyTC7 said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:05PM Kamaka said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:09PM Shockwave said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:11PM SEGA Scream said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:16PM Epoque said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:27PM Faenix said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:33PM Epoque said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 2:39PM SEGA Scream said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:15PM Epoque said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:27PM Faenix said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:28PM TSTLSOOM said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:37PM Dirty said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:50PM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 1:40PM decypherSMC said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 2:09PM Xupmatoih said

Posted: Nov 17th 2010 2:07PM Hong Dong said

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Posted: Nov 17th 2010 2:34PM shortboy12 said

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Posted: Nov 17th 2010 4:11PM Dshark said

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