When it comes to skateboarding games, generally one name comes to mind: Tony Hawk. Activision's skating series has become the benchmark upon which all other "extreme sports" titles will be judged. It's such a consistent hit that a new version of Tony Hawk has arrived every year since the first Neversoft-developed title on the PlayStation back in 1999.

While the Tony Hawk series certainly has its fans, some have accused it of being stagnant and long ago "jumped the shark." This is dismaying to many who'd like to see the sub-genre open up to a wider variety of titles, since the series' success and ubiquitous nature has led to a nigh stranglehold on the market. Tony Hawk's uncontested rule of skateboarding titles saw its greatest test this year from EA (ironically accused of milking its sports franchises as well) with the new title simply called Skate.

We caught up with Chris Parry, Assistant Producer at EA Black Box, and jammed on the success of Skate.

Skating to success

According to the NPD, Skate on the Xbox 360 was the fifth best selling title overall for September. This made it the second best selling title on Microsoft's platform during the same period, with over 175,000 copies sold. Skate was also the eighth best selling PS3 game during the same period.

The release date of the game was key in helping the game stand out this holiday season. Namely, the game released on 360 a full month before Tony Hawk's Proving Ground came out, providing the ever important head start. Also, releasing this year when the new generation of consoles is still young gives the franchise time to get established as the install base of the 360 and PS3 continue to grow.

"Of course, everyone wants their game to be number one, but both the dev team at EA Black Box and the higher ups at EA realized from the start that we were going up against one of the most successful and recognized brands in all of gaming," said Parry. "The fact that we were so well received by gamers, skaters, and reviewers is a testament to the team's amazing hard work and dedication to a project that we knew felt special. We're just glad others feel the same way."

No button mashing here...

One of the big differences in Skate to differentiate it from the Tony Hawks of the world is the control system. The game uses the analog sticks rather than buttons to pull off moves and tricks, giving the game a completely unique feel. Combine that with full fledged online and community features, and you have an engaged fan base.

"Our development mantra was to nail the three c's; controls, camera, and character, with the innovative Flickit controls playing a huge role in defining the feeling of skateboarding," detailed Parry. "Skate's use of the analogs was a pretty significant breakthrough to deliver the visceral rush of skating."

"Skate's online multiplayer offers people a somewhat different feel than the typical online experience where you go and kill people or get worked by some kid gamer jock that is 'sick' at a sports game. Skate offers a bit more of a 'session' experience, just like real skateboarding. Sure you can go and race people, or enter a skate contest, but a lot of people are connecting with the free-skate; hanging with some friends and just skating for the fun of it. We've definitely seen a lot of people simply hooking up to go skate a rail, ledge, or pool around San Vanelona, not caught up in the whole vanquish-your-enemies thing."

"As with everything we try to do, we take our cues from skateboarding," he added. "Skaters have embraced online sharing of videos and pictures for years. It's the quickest way to show others what's gone down at a skate spot or what happened at an event. The communities that sprout up are a natural result of this sharing. We're super happy that gamers have emulated this aspect of skating, but in all honesty, it was pretty much common sense. Look around anywhere on the web from Youtube to Facebook to most gaming sites. The communities are there; you just have to empower them to share what's going on."

A contender to Tony Hawk moving forward?

EA has high hopes for turning Skate into a major franchise going forward and that was really reflected in the ad campaign for the game. All of the ads put great emphasis on the "Flickit" thumb-control system, not only having humor and personality but establishing important gameplay conventions as well. Add this to all the real-life cross promotion items in the game, and you have another marketing success for EA.

"The 'Let Your Little Skater Out' ad campaign as a whole was something special in that it really drove home the idea of our core gameplay innovation of the Flickit controls in a fun, light-hearted way," commented Parry. "From day one we've really tried to establish Flickit as being something truly extraordinary in that it completely changes the way skateboarding games are played. We really wanted our ad campaign to be an extension of this message but understood the need to make it memorable. At the end of the day the campaign's focus was Flickit but the success is largely attributable to having big name pros like Danny Way, Rob Dyrdek, Mike Carroll, and Terry Kennedy not only featured in our ads but really support the concept and the game. The appeal of 'Let Your Little Skater Out' came across as well as it did because of these guys and their personalities. Everything from ad lib input on set to sheer passion for skateboarding was captured in a way that appealed to people from all walks of life."

"Professional skateboarding is fueled by sponsorships and we really wanted to establish that sense of credibility by ensuring we had not just brands but relevant endemic partners in-game," he continued. "Just as any sports fan would expect real teams to be in their favorite sports games, skaters and fans of skateboarding expect real brands and products to be in their skateboard game. The limited-edition shoes from Adidas are a prime example of how we were able to take a relationship with one of these brands to the next level by bridging the gap between in game and reality. Players would see the shoes for the first time in-game and were then given the option to purchase real fresh out-of-the-box pairs through Adidas. We made them a limited-edition item to make them much more of a commodity in that people realized the level exclusivity and wanted to be one of the select few to get their hands on them. 1000 pairs is as limited as you can get, and for the most part I think people saw this as unique opportunity to get their hands on something different. Overall, we're stoked at the number and diversity of brands that signed up to be part of Skate and the Adidas shoes highlight just one of the great things we were able to do with our brand partners."

The critical consensus for Skate seems to be that the game is a good attempt... for a first try. When asked if the game will serve as the basis of a full-fledged franchise and a legitimate competitor to other rival skateboarding games out there, Parry responded, "We're just doing our thing, trying our best, and hopefully good things will happen. So...yes! There's so much more we want to accomplish, but Skate is a great way to get things started."