Games

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 remake ‘scrapped’ by Activision, says Tony Hawk

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 remake ‘scrapped’ by Activision, says Tony Hawk

Activision was reporting looking to release a remaster of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 following the incredible reception to the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 remake, but according to Tony Hawk the plans were scrapped.

The pro skater revealed the news whilst speaking on a Twitch stream Monday evening with andyTHPS (real name Andy Gentile). Gentile is a Level Designer who currently works at Twisted Pixel Games, but had previously worked as a Senior Designer with Vicarious Visions on the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 remake.

According to Hawk, Activision more or less shelved the project after Blizzard Entertainment absorbed Vicarious Visions as a support team. Whilst Activision reportedly took pitches from other studios, they ultimately decided it wasn’t as good as having Vicarious Visions do it, so canned the project entirely.

“That was the plan, even up until the release date of [Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2],” Hawk explained. “We were doing 3 and 4, and then Vicarious got kind of absorbed, and then they were looking for other developers, and then it was over.”

When asked by another member of the stream if Activision didn;t have faith in the project, Hawk replied:

“The truth of it is they were trying to find someone to do 3 and 4, but they just didn’t trust anyone the way that they did Vicarious. So they took other pitches from other studios. Like what would you do with the [Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater] title? And they didn’t like anything they heard. And then that was it.

“I wish there was some way to bring it back. I mean, who knows? Maybe when all the dust settles, we’ll figure it out. You never know. I never would’ve thought we were going to do 1 and 2 20 years later.”

As Hawk notes it’s entirely possible that a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 remake could materialize in the future, especially given the enormous success of the remake in 2020.

For now the project is almost certainly on ice. Not least since Activision confirmed that the developer would no longer be creating games as a lead developer. Instead, the 200 employees are now “fully dedicated to existing Blizzard games and initiatives”.

A crying shame given how that the teams achieved incredible commercial and critical success with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 and Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy.

The only hope is that when Microsoft and Xbox close their acquisition of Activision Blizzard that someone (Phil Spencer) has the good sense to resurrect the project with whatever people are still working within Blizzard currently.