10 Most Desperate Ways Video Games Got You To Play
6. Introducing Goofy Peripherals
Nothing screams desperation quite like a clunky peripheral being packaged with the latest entry into a hit video game franchise in an attempt to salvage flagging sales.
There's no single example of this more egregious than Tony Hawk: Ride, which released in 2009 as the skate series' best days were long behind it, and hoped to rekindle its connection with players en masse by releasing an accompanying plastic skateboard peripheral.
In the era of Guitar Hero it wasn't a terrible idea, even if was clearly a Hail Mary pass to try and rescue a franchise on the commercial skids.
The end result sadly confirmed the full extent of the desperation: the skateboard peripheral was a fiddly, unresponsive disaster, and releasing to the tune of $120, simply hammered another nail in the series' coffin.
External peripherals are admittedly a drastic enough step that few games even dare implement them - the financial risks massively outweigh the potential for successful market innovation, which really only further confirms just how desperate Activision were with the Tony Hawk's franchise.
Ultimately it won fans back not with silly, chunky plastic skateboards but, in a feat of nostalgia pandering, remaking the beloved first two games in the series.