Fans of the Birdman (that's Tony Hawk) got quite a shock earlier this year in April when it was revealed the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater developer Vicarious Visions had been absorbed by Blizzard Entertainment.
Concerns were raised about the future of the series at the time, and if remasters of the third and fourth game would ever see the light of day. Unfortunately, Tony Hawk has now confirmed they're likely not happening.
Speaking on a Twitch stream recently (andyTHPS), Tony shared an upfront statement about the current situation:
"I wish I could say we had something in the works, but you know Vicarious Visions kind of got disbanded and Activision's going through all their stuff, so I don't know what's next..."
When asked about Pro Skater 3 + 4 remasters, he said:
"I mean, that was the plan, even up until the release date of this [Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2] we were going 3 and 4, and then Vicarious got kind of absorbed and they were looking for other developers and then it was over."
Tony briefly elaborated on this, when asked about Activision's "faith" in the future of the series:
"The truth of it is, they [Activision] were trying to find someone to do 3 + 4, but they just didn't really trust anyone the way they did Vicarious, so they took other pitches from other studios, like "what would you do with the THPS title" and they didn't like anything they heard, and that was it."
Tony still hopes that the series could return, but it's probably best not to expect any related announcements in the near future.
After being merged into Blizzard, Vicarious Visions worked on Diablo II: Resurrected, released last September. When Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 finally made its debut on the Nintendo Switch last June, we praised it - labelling it a rock-solid Switch port and awarding it an "excellent" nine out of ten stars.
How do you feel knowing Pro Skater 3 + 4 is now likely not happening? Would you like to see this popular series make a comeback one day? Did you play the remaster of the first two games on Switch? Leave a comment down below.
[source twitch.tv, via twitter.com]
Comments 37
That stinks. Would've loved to replay those too.
That’s unfortunate. The 1+2 game did run really well on Switch.
Wasn't vicarious sent to work on cod? If so, they went from making good games that they most likely enjoyed working on, to just yearly releases, that improve on nothing from the last one. Still yet to pick up the latest Tony hawk pro skater because my backlog
That sucks. The port of 1+2 was excellent. I hadn’t played TH game in so long. But it was literally like riding a bike the moment I picked up the controller and played. 3, IMO, was the series at its best and was hoping to see a remaster of it at some point
All this will change when they all become part of Xbox Game Studios. More variety, less "everybody go work on Call of Duty" and the resurrection of Vicarious Visions might happen.
This is devastating news to me. The remakes of 1+2 were a dream come true, and I would honestly have paid $60 just to have a similar remake of THPS3 since that's my favorite in the series.
Come on Activision!
Loved the Switch remaster (75 hours worth of love). And I adored three and four. Sad they won’t be making it over!
@Banjo- hope so but I'm not quite convinced that Microsoft will change the business model much
Heartbreaking on a personal level for me, these games are the reason I got into skating. ActiBlizz can do one.
We got board-flipped, trickboozled, any other skating pun I can think of!
Wow… that is insanely upsetting to hear. The remaster was fantastic and I would have loved to play more Tony Hawk games, new or remasters.
That's sad to hear. I was really looking forward to THPS 3 & 4 next. Hopefully Microsoft will help make it happen when the Activision acquisition is complete. I showed my support and bought THPS 1 & 2 for PS4, Xbox, & Switch 😕.
This is terrible news. I may be in the minority but 3 and 4 were personal favorites.
@Banjo-
Why would it change when they only bought them for Call of Duty and Blizzard?
Boo, hiss.
3 is without a doubt the best in the series.
My favourite game of the series and the level design was at its best.
We'll probably get CoD Pro Shooter instead.
Nooooooooo! The best two games! 💔 I was waiting for some news on them but not like this
I guess you could say they kickflipped us the bird.
Doesn't bother me though as the Skate series was infinitely better and way more like actual skating than press X to magically magnetically cling to whatever is around to grind on.
Remember that SpongeBob episode where he had a cousin named Stanley who couldn't do anything right? Yeah, that's Activision.
Boo. Rubbish news.
I actually never played 3 & 4 so that's a shame.
Damn it😭 I would have been a no brainer.
That's a shame. I finally got round to buying 1+2, was disgusted by the Activision style menus and achievement systems (really wish that reviews pointed this out as I hate it). Honestly the remakes are pretty meh. The core gameplay is okay but all the lighting effects, cluttered world and subdued colour palette makes it difficult to see the collectibles and stuff. Prefer the originals.
Also when I got round to the second game it quickly dawned on me that the tongue in cheek humour and best levels didn't come until THPS3!
Sounds about right. There was a rumor/"leak" that Spyro 4 was also cancelled around the same time when they made toys 4 Bob a call of duty support studio. Disgusting.
But there is hope for games like Spyro, Tony Hawk and the other forgotten IPs once Microsoft takes over.
The good thing about THPS3 is that it‘s still perfectly playable if you happen to have a PS2 lying around. After replaying 4 though, I really thought it could use some polish. Not as good as I remembered it even though it was one of my favorites back then.
Really a shame it got axed, they did an amazing job with 1 and 2.
I would gladly pay a good price even just for THPS 3! Please make that happen!
Amazing how they passed up something that everyone seems to be begging for to have them work on something that everyone seems to be tired of.
Did 1 & 2 not sell well? I’d assume if they did sell well then there wouldn’t be a question of doing 3 & 4.
Welp that sucks harder than getting your testicles jammed in a bench grinder...
I wonder, if the Microsoft acquisitions goes through, if a plan will be hatched to surgically extract Vicarious Visions from Blizzard again. ^^
That is just terrible fan service, makes you question how much does Blizzard care about their fans? Activision is becoming quite questionable as well...
This really sucks.
3 was my favorite and it sucks it won't get a Remaster. I would have bought it day one.
Unacceptable. Fix it asap. Want THPS 3 + 4 Remastered on all platforms expeditiously. Thank you.
… Wun can only hope.
@Banjo- the irony of you having a Banjo avatar while saying "Microsoft will give is what we want"
@AG_Awesome 1&2 sold less than CoD, therefore they sold poorly by Activision standards, and VV was banished to only working on CoD since it makes more money.
...In the general world of games they sold well though. They were outselling every other THPS release last I heard. We know it hit 1 mil in 10 days, and that was before the Switch / PS5 / XBS? releases. Once VV was revealed to be getting scuppered sooner after, they stopped releasing sales data though, so who knows where the total is.
@durrdevil I don't know if you're aware that Activision Blizzard are happy to have been acquired by Microsoft after years of suffering. You are referring to a completely different thing and, with that, I agree.
Would have been amazing to have 3 & 4. massive shame.
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