If you are still holding out hope that there will be remastered for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 sorry to disappoint, but it appears that those have been canceled following January 2021 announcement that Vicarious Visions had merged with Blizzard Entertainment.
According to Tony Hawk himself, in a Twitch stream hosted by Andy Gentile, the former Principal Designer on Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1+2. Activision lost interest in the new games fairly quickly too, but according to The man himself, it was originally thought that Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3+4s was a go-ahead during the merge with Blizzard Entertainment. Legendary skater Tony Hawk himself went on to detail, The truth is that publisher Activision Blizzard tried to find somebody to make 3 & 4, but just did not trust anybody the same way that they did Vicarious.
Tony Hawks’ own statements basically meant that while Vicarious Vision wanted to keep working on the series, in the end, Activision Blizzard was the one pulling the plug, although Activision ended up looking into offers from outside sources anyway. Speaking during a Tony Hawks Pro Skater Twitch stream last weekend (as noted by Okami Games), Birdman himself suggested that, although additional remasters were planned, merged developer Vicarious Visions has certainly read the idea and perhaps shelved it.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 remasters were in the works but they were scrapped after Vicarious Visions was merged into Blizzard. 😔
Source: Tony Hawk.https://t.co/84rlYDgvUQ pic.twitter.com/oWR70xTOYv
— Kami (@Okami13_) June 20, 2022
The final mainline title in the series, Pro Skater 5, received poor reviews from critics and fans, being the leading candidate on many worst games of 2015 lists. This was followed up with a remake of the first two games for 2020, which was widely praised for accurately recreating what made the series so great. The highly-received remakes of THPS 1+2’s first two games captured and enhanced their spirit beautifully, and were an amazing, nostalgia-filled surprise for Fall 2020.
It is entirely possible we might see a new Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater title by another developer at some point in the future, but confirmations are making it look like it is going to be quite a while. EA is working on a new skateboarding game, but little has been shown publicly yet, and it is not clear yet when that is going to release. Activision has an array of other games it is long due to bring back, and the series has an established track record: It seems a natural fit for a new video game.
If you were hoping that Activision Blizzard would continue with a remaster and bundle together a third and fourth game into a single bundle, consider your hopes dashed. I do wonder if Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard might push it in a new direction, and perhaps see the remastering revived. Whether or not the THPS Remake project ever gets released remains to be seen; it would be smart for Microsoft to revive the project as soon as they officially acquire Activision Blizzard, the THPS games would be quite the big coup for the company, and they would provide some much-needed exclusive fodder going forward. Birdman himself has said there is still a slim chance that something could happen further down the line.
