Sadly, it sounds like we’re not going to see a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 release.
Andy Gentile, a designer at Vicarious visions, was streaming THPS 1+2 and talking about the franchise. His stream featured some guests, including the one and only Tony Hawk himself. Andy mentioned that if there is ever going to be a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4, they know how to reach him.
Tony responded, “I mean that was the plan, you know. Even up until the release date of [THPS 1+2], we were going three and four. Um, and then, Vicarious got kinda absorbed and they were looking for other developers, and then it was over.”
Someone asked Tony if Activision didn’t have faith in anyone developing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 properly.
“The truth of it is that they were trying to find someone to do 3+4 but they just didn’t really trust anyone the way they did Vicarious,” Hawk continues, “so they took other pitches from other studios. Like, what would you o with the THPS title? They didn’t like anything that they heard, and then that was it. I wish there was some way to bring it back.”
Vicarious Visions was moved into part of Blizzard Entertainment by Activision. Most recently, they worked on the Diablo 2: Resurrected remaster, which was met with critical acclaim despite the core gameplay feeling dated.
In a cruel twist of irony, Vicarious was moved to work on Diablo 2 since the in-house team at Blizzard responsible for classic games was completely axed. Vicarious took over that role on the strength of their work with THPS 1+2.
Does this mean we’ll never see Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4? Not necessarily, but don’t count on it any time soon. Tony mentioned that he never imagined we’d see the remaster for 1+2 twenty years later. Never say never.
