Activision today announced the latest game in the long-running Tony Hawk franchise, dubbed Tony Hawk: Ride for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii. That in itself isn't very remarkable, but Activision has also confirmed rumours that the game will come with a lifesize skateboard peripheral for players to stand on.

The skateboard will apparently be compatible and will ship with all versions of the game and furthers Activisions trend of making peripheral-based games lately.

The new controller has been heavily rumoured over the past few months, but was only revealed today on GameTrailers TV. Not much about the game itself was given away, but the debut trailer hints heavily at an open world style game that will place an emphasis on multiplayer.

How players are expected to interact with the life-size skateboard is still a bit of a mystery though and it's unclear if the wheel-less deck is meant to actually be kickflipped around or if it's only going to be used for steering. Activision is sure to unveil more details about the controller in the future though, so we'll keep you posted.

Tony Hawk himself has apparently been wanting to make a peripheral-based skateboarding game for quite a while now, according to Joystiq, but the technology has only recently become available to make the idea feasible and profitable.

Is a skateboard controller a good idea then, or is Activision just opening itself up to all sorts of health and safety lawsuits? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.