The Oral History of the Billion $ Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater Series | “… I made more money than I’d ever imagined.”
Sure Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater wasn’t the best skateboard video game, but it was the first and it was pretty damn addicting at the time. Jenkem caught up with the guys behind the game at Neversoft and all kinds of other nerds including the Birdman Tony Hawk himself. Remember hearing the rumors about how much Tony made off the THPS series? At a few bucks per game that would equate to 100’s of millions of dollars. Tony himself explains in the below interview that while the claims of his revenue were exaggerated, it was by far the most lucrative thing he has ever done and allowed him to stop worrying about money and focus strictly on skateboarding. The THPS franchise did end up breaking the billion dollar mark. Pretty damn crazy. Neversoft in fact tried to buy Tony out of his royalties contract once they realized they had a hit on their hands. Tony said no, and it would go down as the smartest financial decision he ever made.
“If you grew up skating in the early 2000s, you played Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. It’s that simple. Whether you were checking off every single challenge in career mode, vicariously skating as your favorite pros, or nerding out on million point manual combos, you relished in the glory that was the first good skateboarding video game series. Hell, the THPS games may have even convinced you to pick up your first skateboard, regardless of how much brain damage they induced from overplaying that one ska song.
But even if they weren’t that influential for you, the games at least gave us another way to process skateboarding. They let us skate when the weather wouldn’t and they let us share skating with friends who didn’t skate. So for a game that resonated so much with skaters, we decided it was time to learn more about it. That’s why we tracked down some ex-Neversoft guys and the Hawkman himself to find out how the games came about, why they were so lucrative, and where they are today.”
It was a lot more DIY than you’d think.
Financially, how big of an impact did the series have for you?
Tony Hawk: The rumors or speculation of the actual money I’ve made from the series are way inflated, but I made more money than I’d ever imagined. At some point Activision offered me an advance in royalties just so they could keep me under contract. They offered me this ridiculous amount that I never ever thought my royalties would amount to, but I reached that amount in less than the contract’s time frame. When the fourth game came out, the prior three games were all in the top ten of all video games sold for that time frame. It was insane.
It changed my life. By far it was the most lucrative thing that’s ever happened to me. Beyond making money, it allowed me to not have to take every little deal to make a living as a skater. I feel like my skating flourished during those years. I learned more stuff and more techniques than I had my whole career because it gave me the sense of freedom.
Click over to JENKEM for the full Oral History of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
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