Tony Hawk has confirmed that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 was planned to follow in the slipstream of the successful 2020 remake of the original two games, but the project died following Activision’s decision to officially merge developer Vicarious Visions into Blizzard.
The skateboarding legend discussed the decision to abandon plans for more remakes during a Twitch livestream with Andy Gentile, a former Neversoft designer who also served as senior designer on THPS1+2.
“That was the plan; even up until the release day of [Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2], we were going 3 + 4,” said Hawk. “And then Vicarious [Visions] got kind of absorbed, and then they were looking for other developers, and then it was over.”
According to Hawk, Activision was ultimately unimpressed with the proposals it received for further THPS games, so the project went no further.
“The truth of it is that [Activision] were trying to find somebody 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,” said Hawk. “Like, ‘What would you do with the THPS 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 would never have imagined we were going to do 1 + 2 20 years later.”
Maybe when all the dust settles, we’ll figure it out.
Activision announced its decision to fold Vicarious Visions into Blizzard in January 2021, just a few months after the release of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2. The Vicarious Visions team of about 200 people became employees of Blizzard and no longer create games as a lead developer. Vicarious Visions was founded in 1990 and was acquired by Activision in 2005.
The excellent Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 scored a 9 out of 10 on IGN and was dubbed “an absolutely rip-roaring remake.” It also enjoyed the highest first month of sales for any game in the long-running Tony Hawk series to date.
Luke is Games Editor at IGN’s Sydney office. You can chat to him on Twitter @MrLukeReilly.
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