Tony Hawk (PS3) Loses Online Play And Gains Rival From EA

Tony Hawk's future on the PlayStation 3 doesn't look so bright all of a sudden. Two stories came crashing down on Activision's next-gen skating game today, one revealing that Tony Hawk's Project 8 will no longer have online play on the PS3, and the other one heralding a rival PS3 game from EA, simply called Skate.

The reason for not having an online mode in the PS3 version of Tony Hawk's Project 8 is that, according to IGN, Neversoft have only recently received their PlayStation 3 development kits, so they didn't get to implement it in time for the console's launch in November:

"Project 8 is not online for PlayStation 3. Not online for PS3. Only within the last three weeks has Neversoft received its PS3 beta kits, (...) but it still hasn't received all of the software libraries and has no indication of how the online components will work on PS3, so it's not offering them. For a software company that's always supported the PlayStation system and was, in fact, the first developer to offer online play on PS2 with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, that's saying something."

This is also bad news for Sony, of course, but at least the following story should work in their favor (though I can't say the same for Activision).

Announced by Electronic Arts via the PSM magazine is a new skateboarding game for the PlayStation 3, called Skate. Not much is known about it right now, except that it's being developed by EA Vancouver with a released date planned for 2007, and that it will feature 14 pro skaters. Other versions of Skate will likely be revealed soon, but either way EA is going to have a very hard time fighting Activision on their own skating ground.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)