Tony Hawk has given fans an update on the future of the Pro Skater franchise.
The original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game was released in 1999 and introduced a generation to alternative music and skateboarding culture. Four more Tony Hawk’ Pro Skater games were released in the following years, alongside spin-off series Tony Hawk’s Underground. A number of standalone Tony Hawk’s skateboarding games were also launched, but there hasn’t been a new mainline entry in the franchise since 2015.
Now, Tony Hawk has revealed there are plans to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the franchise.
Speaking to Mythical Kitchen, Hawk admitted “something” was in the works but didn’t want to give too much away. “I wish I could tell you more, but I can tell you that I’ve been talking to Activision again, we’re working on something,” he said.
“It will be something the fans will truly appreciate,” he added.
In 2020, a remastered collection of the first two Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games was released by Vicarious Vision and, according to Hawk, the plan was for the third and fourth games to also get remastered. However, Vicarious Vision became part of Blizzard in 2022, with the studio working on Diablo and the Pro Skater remaster project was ultimately cancelled.
The same year Hawk revealed that after the merger, Activision Blizzard were “looking for other developers” but nothing came of it. “They just didn’t really trust anyone the way they did Vicarious,” he explained. “They took other pitches from other studios but they didn’t like anything they heard, and then that was it.”
Last year, Hawk revealed that the Pro Skater games almost didn’t happen because he was already in talks with another studio about a skateboarding game. “When I saw what Activision had, they had a very early version of a skater doing tricks. The way it moved…to me it was intuitive, it was perfect. Right away I started playing it, started doing tricks — it was almost like it was an extension of my body to start doing this,” he explained.
In other news, Flappy Bird is set to make a return, 10 years after the viral mobile game was taken offline.
