Emily Brown
Tony Hawk has revealed how much money he earned from the Pro Skater video game series which allowed people to step foot in the skateboarder's virtual shoes.
Having already established himself as one of the most famous skateboarders in real life, Hawk earned the same title in the gaming world with the release of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater in 1999.
The game first arrived on the original PlayStation before being released the following year on Nintendo 64, and as fans fell in love with having the ability to grind and flip their way across the screen creators went on to release a number of sequels, the most recent of which arrived in 2015.
Naturally, Hawk benefitted from his releases - but exactly how much he benefitted might surprise you:
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The skateboarder discussed his earnings during an appearance on The Nine Club podcast, where he was asked how much he made from the game.
Hawk said he didn't want to share any specifics, but still couldn't resist dropping a figure - and a big one at that.
He explained: "I don't want to go into detail, but I will give you this. When the fourth game was released, my main contact at Activision asked to have lunch with me in LA when I was there one day. He's not the head, but he was definitely the guy overseeing our games."
The Activision employee is said to have told Hawk the developer was releasing a fourth game, drawing on the success of the first three which were 'still in the top 10 of sales'.
The first game was being moved into 'classics mode', meaning it would be sold at a 'certain price' but with 'way more volume', and the employee made clear to Hawk that the success was 'way bigger' than he'd be expecting.
Hawk admitted he was excited about the revelation, saying he knew it would be 'big', though he expected it would amount to about $1 million (£848,850) dollars.
In reality, the employee handed over a cheque for an incredible $4m (£3.4m).
That wasn't all he made, either, as the skateboarder said that was his 'annual royalty', implying there were a lot more cheques where that came from.
"He slides the cheque over and I'm like 'I got lunch!'," Hawk joked, before turning serious and stressing the video game 'changed [his] life'.
As well as the five Pro Skater games, Hawk has inspired titles such as Tony Hawk's Underground and Tony Hawk: Shred.
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