The legendary Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game series earned 'life-changing' royalties for Hawk and turning down the offer of a one-time fee was a masterstroke.
Hawk was a vert skateboarding icon when he was heavily involved in the development of the first game title to bear his name.
Activision and Neversoft launched Tony Hawk's Pro Skater to global acclaim in 1999.
A true work of art, THPS spawned four directly named sequels, a barrage of other games carrying Hawk's name and even The 900, a UK band covering songs from the THPS series' feted soundtracks.
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The franchise has made nearly $1.5bn and is even credited with playing its part in growing the sport of skateboarding itself.
Hawk was streetwise enough and entrepreneurial enough to hold on for the big bucks at the expense of declining what must have been a tempting one-off fee before the very first game was released.
"When they were close to launch of the game, they started to sense there was buzz about it," Hawk told the Diary of a CEO podcast in 2023.
"They knew they had a good game overall and they felt this surge of interest, and so they offered me a buyout of future royalties right before the game launched.
"Nowadays an entire generation of kids have asked me if I’m named after a video game."
Hawk said no to an offer of $500,000 for his royalties from Activision and Neversoft. Instead, he's been earning from his name and his input for quarter of a century.
In 2018, Hawk told The Nine Club how much he was paid by Activision after the launch of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, the fourth game in the franchise, in 2002.
"I don't want to downplay that," said Hawk of the $4 million payment. "That video game changed my life."
Now 57, Hawk remains the biggest household name in a sport that rode his influence all the way to the Olympics.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 was developed by Robomondo and launched in 2015, five years before the beloved originals got a lick of digital paint.
THPS Remastered
In 2020, THPS 1 and 2 were remastered and re-released together to yet more critical acclaim.
A documentary film, 'Pretending I'm a Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story', marked the occasion by telling the story of the development of the franchise and its popularisation of skateboarding as a mainstream activity.
Activision launched the remastered Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 earlier this month.
Topics: Gaming
Chris Nee