A remaster of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4 in the style of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 was once in the works, according to Tony Hawk himself, but that project likely isn’t happening, thanks to series developer Vicarious Visions being absorbed by Blizzard Entertainment.
Hawk made the comments about a planned Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4 remaster in a broadcast on Twitch on Sunday spotted by Reddit. Hawk appeared on a Twitch stream hosted by Andy “andyTHPS” Gentile, former senior designer at Vicarious Visions who worked on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2, and was responding to comments about future Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games.
“I wish I could say that we had something in the works, but you know Vicarious Visions kinda got disbanded and Activision’s going through all their stuff so I don’t know what’s next,” Hawk said. “That was the plan, even up until the release date of [Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 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.”
Vicarious Visions was folded into Blizzard Entertainment in January 2021, and is now referred to as Blizzard Albany.
Hawk added that Activision planned to make a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4 even after Vicarious Visions’ transition to Blizzard, but the publisher couldn’t make it happen.
“The truth is they were trying to find someone to do 3 and 4 but they just didn’t really trust anyone the way they did Vicarious,” Hawk said. “So they took other pitches from other studios […] They didn’t like anything they heard and that was it.”
Added the ever-optimistic Hawk, “Who knows? Maybe when all the dust settles we’ll figure it out.”
The original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 was released in 2001 for PlayStation and PlayStation 2, and later ported to a variety of platforms. The third game in the Pro Skater franchise introduced the revert to the series (a move implemented in the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 remaster), and included cameos from licensed characters Star Wars’ Darth Maul, id Software’s Doomguy, and Marvel’s Wolverine. Pro Skater 4 was released a year later and introduced the spine transfer and a more freeform Career Mode.
