Now that Activision's Tony Hawk skating franchise is facing stiff competition from EA's Skate, rumors are circulating that the publisher may want to innovate the series by giving the axe to the series creators. Is Neversoft out and is new dev Robomodo in? Details after the jump.

The Tony Hawk video game franchise is already a winner in itself, but Activision, Neversoft, and Tony Hawk still saw it fit to do some overhaul in the franchise's direction. Dubbed as the "Tony Hawk Innovation Plan," what can fans expect from this move? Read more in the full article.

Game Developers Magazine is starting a new trend, and it's to list out the Top 50 videogame developers of the year - just to give back to the groups that made our lives a bit more exciting through their realized (and digitized) works of art. Want to know if your favorite game developer made the list? Hit the full article to find out!

 

We recently reported that British game studio Bizarre Creations has inked an acquisition deal with giant publisher Activision. The deal places the former as an in-house development wing of the publisher, retaining its identity under a bigger corporate mantle.

Many were shocked as to why Bizarre Creations would sign such a pact with Activision, noting that the firm is doing very well on its own with various publishing partners handling its deals. Commercial Director Sarah Chudley explains the rationale in a report by GamesIndustry.

Chudley says that the successful run that both Bizarre Creations and Activision are having makes the partnership an ideal one. Activision is looking for good developers that will create new games for them while the developer wants to focus on creating quality content without the hassles of trying to strike deals before a project materializes.

"All we want to concentrate on is making great games, rather than the pressures of running a pretty large development studio, searching out deals," says Chudley as she expresses relief in not having to spend months on legal and business issues anymore.

"We want to be doing what we love, in the way that we enjoy, without having to think about being big business people," she adds. "It was a long and hard path coming to this decision, but we were driven by our desire to continue being able to deliver great games, and to enjoy doing it."

Chudley says that Bizarre Creations also chose Activision because of its "hands-off policy" on their developers. They don't tend to cramp up the creative styles of the teams working on games, preserving their individuality and freedom. She cites Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare developers Infinity Ward and Tony Hawk creators Neversoft as prime examples.

"They are an extremely successful publisher who has a big passion for games, and who have great respect for all of our teams," Chudley concludes. New IPs under Activision are yet to be announced.

Who'd have thunk it? Adam Yauch a.k.a. MCA of the Beastie Boys will be showing off his mad skateboarding skills (at least virtually) in Activision's upcoming skater game, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground. He'll be one of the new faces that will grace the famous, if improbable, line up of bonus skaters for the game.

Included in this update is the complete soundtrack listing for Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, totalling a hefty 54 licensed songs all in all. Included in this list will be famous bands that play to the tune which has marked this high-velocity series, such as the Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Slick Rick, and Jurassic 5.

Activision also announced an added bonus for those getting the Xbox 360 version of the game. The game will include a five song demo of "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock." While the demo will be available soon on the Xbox Live, this is definitely a freebie that will be hard to pass up on.

Developed by Neversoft, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground is scheduled for release during the last quarter of this year. It will be coming out for the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Nintendo DS and Wii.

Check out the complete list of songs and their respective artists right after the jump!

Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk recently sat down in an interview to talk about the latest title of the Tony Hawk games, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground - as well as a few comments about Electronic Art's SKATE. We're here to hit you with the cold hard facts faster and harder than botching an Indy 900.

The Hawk began the interview by talking about his involvement in the past games. He reminisces that, while his participation in the games have been fairly consistent, it was a much harder time when the first game was still in production - he had to give Neversoft and Activision a crash course of skateboarding culture besides helping with the actual game.

When asked of his thoughts about SKATE, Tony Hawk replied that it was about time for someone else to jump the bandwagon, and that he wasn't worried about EA's foray into the skating genre stealing Proving Ground's thunder. Posed with the fact that SKATE aims to be as realistic as possible, Tony replied that the game was as real as the player made of it - part of the appeal of video games is doing stuff you'd never be able to do in real life. He elaborated by saying that if they did make the Tony Hawk games as "realistic" as possible, they wouldn't even be able to make the 9th game in the series, much less a sequel to the original game.

Well, what about you, readers? SKATE or Tony Hawk's Proving Ground? Realism or over-the-top action? Either way, the comparison WILL be unavoidable - and we'll be here to update you as developments occur. In the meantime, you can check out the full interview at the read link we've provided below.