Since the Tony Hawk franchise took a year off to rethink its approach as EA’s Skate made its presence known in late 2007, there’s been plenty of speculation whether Activision will be able to revive the fan-losing franchise and if so, how will they go about it. Well now we know, and it’s something we certainly didn’t expect. The trailer (after the break) for the game has debuted on GTTV and the main attraction is at the very end of the video — the skateboard-shaped controller you see above.

The rest of the trailer is made almost fully of real-world action with a few tiny glimpses of the game itself, but certainly don’t expect anything extravagant like seeing the board in action.

We’re not really sure what to make of this quite yet since the trailer has presented more questions than answers. How durable is this thing? Will there be changes to the game itself? Is the board optional? Will people be breaking their fingers as they try to do flips for giggles? Is this another step towards realism in skating games or just a gimmick to draw attention? Hopefully we’ll get some answers in the coming weeks as E3 approaches.