When the new Tony Hawk HD arrives, one thing it is not likely to have is the original tunes from the game’s soundtrack. Activision community blogger Dan Amrich commented that getting tunes from the original soundtrack would be difficult due to music licensing contracts.

The big problem is that since it actually isn’t the same game they would have to do a new music licensing deal. Normally, the deals that are done for video games are one shot deals for specific tunes, for a specific title, and that’s it. Any change requires a new negotiated deal.

While Activision is hopeful that they can work something out to bring some of the original music back, it is more likely that in the Tony Hawk tradition of games past the game will break in new bands, which has always been something that series has done.

Of course, the game will support custom playlists, so it would be possible to recreate the original music from the game if you could remember all of the songs. This has been a continuing problem with reissued older titles where the music is changed when the game is re-released; and it would seem that players don’t like it. Let’s hope Activision is able to pull something off and is able to get at least some of the original tunes included with the new release.