Once upon a time, developer Vicarious Visions was working on a sequel to 2020’s excellent remake collection. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2. The project would have consisted of remakes of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4, which would have been stupid. Unfortunately, according to new research from YouTuber Liam Robertson DidYouKnowGamingThe project was reportedly rejected by Activision so that the team, which was renamed Blizzard Albany in 2021, could focus on it call of Duty.
Robertson uploaded an hour-long video to his DidYouKnowGaming channel on May 4th. The video delves deep into a time long lost Donkey Kong 3D platformer that Vicarious Visions was rumored to have been working on (surprisingly!), but is shaping up to be a multi-layered reveal of projects at Activision’s own studio that were either canceled, rejected or shelved. One of these projects was a complete remake collection, consisting of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1, 2, 3And 4, which would have combined all four skate games into one stunning collection. As you know, only two of these games were remade and released as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2which came out in 2020 commercially and critical success. Robertson’s sources close to the project, who spoke anonymously, said the scope was ultimately scaled down.
“During initial discussions about the project, the team initially wanted their remake collection to not only include: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 And 2But 3 And 4 too,” Vicarious Visions sources told Robertson. “Ultimately this was deemed too ambitious and the proposal was reduced to the original two titles. A former developer explained it [Activision’s] Decision as follows: “We decided to add some handling features from the later games to reflect the way people remember the old ones.” THPS games. Some of the improvements of [THPS] 3 seemed to be imprinted on people’s memories of the first 2. At some point it became clear that we had no more time 1+2so the idea that we would go ahead and publish 3+4 in a way was on the table.’”
Robertson said that this was one of the reasons Activision walked away Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 because it wanted Vicarious Visions to provide complementary work call of Dutysomething the studio had done with 2016 Infinite Warfare. Another reason was the eventual merger in 2021 Activision acquires Vicarious Visionschange the name to Blizzard Albany and ask the team to move The Diablo II New edition to other Activision projects, namely more call of Duty and finally, Diablo IV.
“[Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2] would be released in cinemas in September 2020 to general critical acclaim and was a huge commercial success,” said Robertson. “It became the fastest-selling game in the franchise and was cited as a primary source of revenue for Activision in the 2020 investor meeting. There was a brief glimmer of hope surrounding the release that Vicarious Visions would achieve their goal of a revamp Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 And 4. A pitch for such a project was presented to the head of Activision shortly after the completion of the first two and they declined to greenlight it, again telling the studio that they should focus on adding to their larger franchises.”
This all seems to be consistent with what Birdman himself has said about the project. In June 2022, Tony Hawk stated that the plan was always to release THPS 3+4But everything came to a screeching halt when Activision acquired Vicarious Visions.
“I mean, that was the plan, you know, even up until the release date of [THPS1+2] we went 3+4Hawk said during a Neversoft Twitch stream. “Then Vicarious kind of got sucked in and they started looking for other developers, and then it was over.”
My city I’ve asked Activision for comment.
This really sucks because Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 were exceptional games that recaptured the feel of the first two entries – now over two decades old – while modernizing them in a way that makes them more accessible to newer audiences. It came after the disastrous release in 2015 Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5and follow up on that miserable game was no easy task, so I thought this remastered collection would have revitalized the franchise as a whole. But at this point, we can only hope that Activision tries to breathe new life into the game at some point in the future.
