Tony Hawk: Ride is a spin-off in the Tony Hawk's series of skateboarding video games. In Europe and North America, the game was released in 2009, for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360[4] and Wii. In Australia, it was released in 2010.In February 2008, publisher Activision said that the game was undergoing research and testing. The publisher also said at the time that the game would be a "re-engineering [for] the franchise" and said that there would be "a new direction for the brand"

Later in May, Activision spoke more about the new game. During a quarterly earnings conference, the company again confirmed that the new game would "deliver the kind of breakthrough this franchise needs". At the same time, Activision confirmed that the new game would not be released in 2008, but was scheduled to be out before their 2010 fiscal year ends. This would put the window of release between April 1, 2009 and March 31, 2010.