Activision held their quarterly conference call yesterday and spilled the beans on what they have planned for 2008/early 2009.
The big news is that Tony Hawk is getting a huge makeover according to Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing:
Over the past six months, we’ve been working reengineer the Tony Hawk brand. We started with a deep dive evaluation of our approach to the genre and new trends in the videogame market. Then we conducted a significant amount of consumer research and testing to better understand the types of innovations that consumers want from this brand.
I guess this is what happens when you stop being the only game in town and a newcomer (in this case, EA's Skate) pulls in a crowd too.
Griffith also talked about the next entries in the Guitar Hero series (which should ship sometime between April and June) and made a few remarks about the series appearing on new platforms, "headlining" bands and new hardware innovations.
So, while cryptic, it certainly sounds like Guitar Hero for the DS and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith could become a reality. But the "hardware innovations" quote could mean anything, maybe "Drum Villain" (which Activision owns the trademark to) is closer than we think.
Finally, the company confirmed that Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and a new Spider-Man game are coming this fall. They've also confirmed that Call of Duty 5 is coming to the PC, PS3, Xbox 360, DS, PS2 and Wii.
Here's the full list of what Activision has lined up for the rest of the year and into early 2009:
April - June 2008
# Kung Fu Panda (six platforms)
# 2 Guitar Hero Spinoffs
# Call of Duty 5 (PS3, Xbox 360, DS, PC, PS2, Wii)
# Guitar Hero 4
# Next Tony Hawk
# Quantum of Solace (Bond 22)
# Madagascar: The Crate Escape
# Kung Fu Panda Followup
# Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
# Next Spider-Man
# Monsters Versus Aliens (Dreamworks Animation)