Tony Hawk Turned Down An 'Unreal' Check For A Skateboarding Game In The '90s: How The 'Gamble' Paid Off

Legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk turned down a $500,000 buyout for a skateboarding video game in the late 1990s. The game ended up generating more than $1 billion in sales and the pro skateboarder raked in royalties for 16 years. 

Letting It Ride: Activision, now Activision Blizzard Inc (NASDAQ: ATVI), offered Hawk half a million dollars to put his name on their skateboarding video game in 1999, according to a CNBC report. 

The video game made Hawk soar in popularity and eventually led to a sequel release. He collected royalties on the games from 1999 to 2015. 

"I had never heard anyone speak the words 'half a million dollars' to me, so to me ... it seemed unreal," Hawk said on an episode of CNBC's "The Brave Ones."

"So I told them, no, I want to let it ride."

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Hawk said he was following his instinct. He was also already in a pretty good financial situation due to other endorsements he was doing, so he felt like he could "take a gamble."

Soon after he turned down the offer, Activision began talking about a sequel to "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater." Both games generated approximately $1.4 billion in sales across the globe. Hawk was paid royalties as part of a licensing deal that ended up lasting 16 years. 

Before the game, he was just a skateboarder, he said, but "Pro Skater" was the tipping point and his fame soared. He couldn't walk through an airport or go out to dinner without people coming up to him and asking for autographs. 

Hawk noted he wasn't sure how many copies of the game were ultimately sold, but "absolutely, I've seen my fair share," he said. 

The "godfather of action sports" was the highest-paid action sports athlete in 2009, per Forbes. Various sites estimate Hawk currently has a net worth between $140 million and $180 million.  

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