Tony Hawk Franchise's Success a "Happy Accident," Legendary Skater Says

The Tony Hawk series of skateboarding games helped introduce the extreme sports to the masses, but the legendary skateboarder himself and namesake for the franchise didn't originally set out to do that. The franchise's mainstream appeal was a "happy accident," Hawk told GameSpot in a recent interview.

"When we first released the game, I just thought it would be something that skaters would enjoy," he explained. "And maybe that it would inspire skaters to start playing video games. First and foremost, I wanted the skaters to be happy with it. So it's definitely just a pressure I took on myself."

Talking about the origins of the Pro Skater franchise, which debuted in 1999 for the original PlayStation, Hawk said he wasn't satisfied with the way in which skateboarding was depicted in other games. Hawk, a lifelong gamer himself, wanted to make a game that authentically represented the culture, lifestyle, and music of the skateboarding scene.

And out of that desire, the Pro Skater franchise was born. But Hawk said he never anticipated the series taking off in the way that it did.

"The idea that it inspired a generation to start skating or to get interested in skating was kind of a happy accident."

The next entry in the series, Pro Skater 5, launches in September for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. It represents something of a second era of Pro Skater games, as Activision put the series on hold back in 2011 after Tony Hawk: Shred--which used a life-sized skateboard peripheral--sold under 3,000 units during its first week on sale.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD, a high-definition remake of the original, was released in 2012. Its success--it sold hundreds of thousands of copies--paved the way for Pro Skater 5.