It was inevitable. The next Tony Hawk game, "Ride", will be controlled with a special skateboard peripheral (see attachment). You have to use it in order to play Ride; traditional controllers are not supported.
"Skateboarder Tony Hawk said he has wanted to create a peripheral-based game for quite some time, but technology only recently allowed Ride to be possible. When grilled about his skill at the video game, Hawk said that he was quite good and added that skateboarders should find the transition easy. Multiple difficulty modes will allow players with even the most inadequate of balancing capabilities to play."
GameTrailers has an exclusive video about it. Bear in mind that the video is a big, fat pile of nothingness, and doesn't even show the board in action. The video seems to be marketed at actual skaters, but if you have to go as far as using a skateboard controller why not just go outside and use the real thing?
There's no word yet of a PC version, and I would be very surprised if there was one, but it's still an interesting oddity.

Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me. Has the stupid Balance Board craze gone this far?
Personally, when I first heard of the Wii, I found it stupid, because nobody wants to move around to play games! They have outdoors for that! I still hate the Wii (because of the shovelware), but I found the idea of the motion-sensing controllers not a bad idea after all.
Then we have this. A big, black, stupid gimmick. Past experience with Tony Hawk games proves that you do not need a fake skateboard to enjoy the game. After all, grinding a half pipe in Los Angeles in itself is a total rush anyway. But that's because I suck at skateboarding in real life, and I could totally waste your ass on a controller. But give me a fake skateboard I need to use, and things turn around quickly.
Overall, I will wait and see. In the meantime, there's still Skate 2...

Not having seen the video, it sounds like they want to make money off people who would otherwise be outside doing the real thing because the other games aren't similar enough to the real thing.

that one would be pink ;-)
Does anyone have any idea how this will work?? I can't work it out... are we gonna be jumping on the board? Surely we can't flip it?
Anyone try the skateboard controllers for the PS2?

Because trying to grind down the hand rail of a real stairway would certainly lead to extreme injury, and possibly death for me. Doing the same thing on this black gadget wouldn't. That being said, I have absolutely no interest in it. I'd prefer a normal controller too.