Tony Hawk has had a successful career. First, the sports. The American is considered the best vert skater in the world and one of the most versatile and skilled in vertical skateboarding. He competed for half the world and raised this sport to levels of popularity never seen before.
Hawk soon began to exploit his image in the 90s. He signed an agreement with one of the most important video game franchises. The Tony Hawk saga, among which Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Pro Skater 2 and Pro Skater 3 stand out. And the economic results have even exceeded his expectations, because he received a check for four million dollars corresponding to his image rights for the first three versions of the game.
“In a meeting with my Activision contact, he explained to me that we were going to release the fourth game. The last three were still in the top 10 sales. From one of them, we were going to make a classic version with a different price. But the issue was much bigger than he realized, ”Hawk explained on The Nine Club podcast.
To the surprise of the American star, he was then presented with a check for four million dollars. “They corresponded to my annual royalties, although I don't remember it well. But I thought, wow!” the skater recalled.
Hawk never imagined that his video games could be so profitable for him: “I noticed, while he was saying it, that he wanted to convey to me that we were doing something very big. And I thought so too. All of this, while he handed me a check with that money on it.”
The skater had no choice but to joke, remember: "I pay for the food!". Despite the jokes, Hawk acknowledges in that interview that his career changed completely after the launch of that saga: "Video games changed my life."
