released on the PlayStation in August 1999. Development of a sequel began immediately after its release. Spider-Man was also developed for Activision in 2000. Like THPS, the technology for this game was based on the Apocalypse engine, which was in turn based on the Big Guns engine. Neversoft was now developing two major games in parallel, and expanded into two large teams. Activision acquired Neversoft in the summer of 1999 in a stock swap deal. The founders of Neversoft and several key employees signed four-year employment agreements. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 and Spider-Man were both released in 2000. Neversoft began work on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 specifically for the PlayStation 2. After both teams finished their projects they were merged into one large team. THPS3 was developed using the RenderWare game engine. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 was released in 2001, followed by Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 in 2002. In 2003 Neversoft reworked the game with a more story-oriented approach in Tony Hawk's Underground, followed by a sequel in Tony Hawk's Underground 2 in 2004. In 2005 Neversoft again split into two teams to begin work on the internally developed Gun and the seventh version of the Tony Hawk's series — Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. Tony Hawk's Project 8 was developed and released in 2006. This was the first title under Neversoft that was developed as a next-gen title for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Tony Hawk's Proving Ground was released in 2007. It is the second title for the PlayStation 3 and third for Xbox 360 in the Tony Hawk's series. It was the last Tony Hawk game to be developed by Neversoft; the franchise moved to Robomodo. After Activision acquired RedOctane and the Guitar Hero series, Harmonix developed their last Guitar Hero game, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, before they were acquired by MTV. Neversoft became the developer for the Guitar Hero series beginning with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles, using their in-house game engine made from scratch instead of Harmonix's engine. Several Guitar Hero series games have been developed by Neversoft since 2007, including Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Guitar Hero World Tour (incorporating drums and vocals alongside guitar), Guitar Hero: Metallica, Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. Games developed Notes References External