This is the DEK and it may be the first video game peripheral designed to work with the latest, wildly unpopular Tony Hawk skateboarding and snowboarding games that require dedicated skateboard controllers to play.

A mere two weeks before the release of its second game, Tony Hawk: Shred developer Robomodo is hit by layoffs, with sources reporting 30 to 60 jobs being cut due to the loss of the Tony Hawk franchise.

Tony Hawk: Ride may have been useless as video game, but that sturdy plastic controller may have a second calling as a real skateboard. All you need is your own wheels.

Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk may have just officially sent the Activision PR team into a 720-degree tizzy, tweeting about Tony Hawk: Shred, quite possibly the more shred-tastic follow-up to the skateboard-as-controller experiment Tony Hawk: Ride.

Activision Blizzard isn't going to let poor reviews of Tony Hawk Ride get them down. Sticking to its schedule of annual skateboard releases, the company announced today that it would release a new Tony Hawk game, using the board peripheral.

Tony Hawk: Ride was a mess. And that's putting it kindly. That hasn't stopped the skating legend from working with the game's developers again, however, announcing today the roots of their "next project".

Tony Hawk seemed to take matters into his own hands last night, hopping onto Twitter to get people to play his latest skateboarding game Tony Hawk's Ride.

Police and relatives say an argument over Tony Hawk: Ride precipitated a shocking murder in New York; Anthony Maldonado, 9, (pictured) who got a PS3 for Christmas, was stabbed in the chest by an enraged 25-year-old early New Year's Day.

Skateboarding hero Tony Hawk is still positive on the possibility of more Tony Hawk Ride and more skateboard controller support, despite harsh critical reception and cool initial sales of the Robomodo developed game.