The sponsorship supports Activision's upcoming launch of Tony Hawk's Underground. Additional Gravity Games promotional activities which feature Tony Hawk's Underground include a national sweepstakes and online contest whereby consumers can visit www.gravitygames.com for a chance to win copies of the game, a Supra launch ski boat, a SoBe Suzuki Motorcycle, Mongoose bikes, a SoBe wakeboard and a year's supply of SoBe beverages. Also, during the Gravity Games' street and vert competitions, NBC will broadcast eight, 30-second television spots for the highly anticipated video game.
"The Gravity Games is a perfect fit for our brand and the event's timing is ideal to support the launch of Tony Hawk's Underground," said Will Kassoy, vice president of global brand management, Activision. "With the NBC broadcasts, the Gravity Games generates record network ratings for action sports programming and reaches millions of fans of both action sports and our popular Tony Hawk series. As a result of this unique alliance, Activision will be able to match its industry leading gaming technology with one of the most popular action sports events in the world."
"Activision is such a great fit with the Gravity Games and we are thrilled to be partnered with them again this year," said Wade Martin, General Manager of the Gravity Games. "The Tony Hawk's Underground game technology is amazing and is a complement to our Gravity Games broadcasts."
The Gravity Games is already television's highest rated action sports program (16 of the top 20 broadcasts) and the popularity continues to grow worldwide. A crowd of more 163,000 spectators attended the five-day event, which was held at North Coast Harbor in Cleveland, Ohio, September 10-14, 2003, to watch more than 200 of the world's best professional action sports athletes compete in skateboarding, freestyle motocross, BMX freestyle, aggressive in-line skating and wakeboarding events.
Tony Hawk's Underground is being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft and Nintendo GameCube(TM), and has been rated "T" ("Teen - with blood, mild violence, strong language and suggestive themes") by the ESRB. The Game Boy Advance version, developed by Vicarious Visions, Inc., has been rated "E" ("Everyone - Animated Blood") by the ESRB.