Tony Hawk tells Andrew Schulz how close he came to losing millions

Tony Hawk revealed to Andrew Schulz on the Flagrant 2 podcast that Activision tried to buy out his royalties for the Pro Skater series, meaning he would have lost millions on sequels to the popular game. 

Since the release of Tony Hawk Pro Skater in September 1999, the hit series has sold over 1.9 billion copies across the world. The game spanned four entire generations of video game consoles, even though the popularity of the game trickled off after Neversoft merged with Infinity Ward in 2014.

On a November 2 episode of Flagrant 2 with Andrew Schulz, Tony Hawk revealed a few interesting stories – including how he almost lost millions of dollars after Activision offered to buy him out of his contract.

Tony Hawk on Flagrant 2 Podcast

Starting off the conversation, Schulz asked the skateboarding legend: “I was reading some statistic where they thought it was going to sell a quarter million games, and it sold like five million?”

Tony Hawk just so happened to have a story to tell regarding the initial release of his popular Pro Skater series, explaining a phone call that he received from Activision right before launch.

“As the game neared release, they could sense the buzz of it. They called and offered me a buyout,” Hawk explained. “They had offered me a half a million dollars. I had just moved into a new house and I was starting to make good money as a pro skater, so I decided to take a chance on it. If I hadn’t bought that house right then, I probably would have taken it.”

The professional skateboarder went on to mention that he’s excited he didn’t take the buyout offer, as it would have taken away royalties from every sequel to the game and millions of dollars out of his pocket.

Tony Hawk mentioned later in the episode that he has had a ton of different opportunities be offered to him with the release of his video game series. It’s unknown how much different his life would be now had he said yes, but one thing’s for certain — his pockets would probably be a little bit lighter.