Quite frankly, we're glad Tony Hawk took a year off from the videogame biz last year. The games that wore his name were starting to look a bit, shall we say, dated. 

We've been hearing rumors of his triumphant return to the gaming space for awhile, with the biggest one being that the title wouldn't use a traditional controller, but rather an all-new skateboard peripheral. Variety is now saying the same thing, with its sources seemingly confirming the new controller, along with a few details. 

"I'm told it won't be about precise balance," writes Ben Fritz, "Instead it'll be about grabbing and manipulating the board to pull of all the tricks for which Tony Hawk games are known."

He also says that since the controller works differently than the Wii Balance Board, this peripheral will also be required for the Wii version as well. New development studio Robomodo -- born out of the ashes of the now-defunct EA Chicago -- are said to be on the case.

Activision has had great successful with its Guitar Hero line of peripherals, which appear to confirm people are willing to shell out money for extra crap they're OK with having lying arond their house. However, the experience has to match up; it has to be worth taking up the space where your coffee table used to live. We have a feeling we'll be finding out whether or not that's the case pretty soon.