Neversoft Quits Tony Hawk

After running the Tony Hawk series into the ground, Neversoft has said they will not make any more Tony Hawk games. Instead, they will be focusing their efforts into running the Guitar Hero series into the ground. The Tony Hawk series is not dead, however. Another developer will be taking over the series.

Neversoft created the first Tony Hawk game in 1999 and has gone on to release at least nine games in the series. (It gets a little confusing since there's lots of remakes for various systems.)

A new Tony Hawk game, Tony Hawk Adrenaline, is scheduled to be released in Fall 2009. Rumor has it that the new developer Robomodo will be making the series now.

Guitar Hero Dropout

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but with work and this current tropical storm/hurricane Fay going through the area, I've been kinda busy. This news item hit the presses over the weekend, and I had to post about it. A 16-year-old in Raleigh, NC(Blake Peebles) has convinced his parents to let him drop out of high school so he can concentrate on Guitar Hero.

I believe this is where the phrase "WTF?!?" was originally invented to go. Why would his parents allow such a thing? They say they were sick of his complaining. He's 16! He's a teenager! He will complain, no matter what!

Fortunately, it's not a simple dropout situation. He is basically being home schooled by a tutor so he's not just sitting there playing Guitar Hero non-stop with no learning. But what is this mythical career in Guitar Hero that he believes he will pursue? In the news report, there are vague talks about tournaments and competitions, but most of their information about how much professional gamers can make are from leagues like Major League Gaming which competes in first person and third person shooters.

So far, Peebles has made about $1,000 in his Guitar Hero career. That's not $1,000 cash, though. Much of it is in the form of prizes like free meals from Chik-Fil-A and other some material goods.

This just seems like a terrible parenting decision. Good luck, Blake Peebles.... you'll need it.