A couple of days ago a journalist tweeted that Activision were working on remakes of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and it’s sequel and these were being shared around Activision. It was unclear if they were going to be full remakes or just tests to get the game up and running on more modern tech with a view of creating a new game.
Explanation of what I shared in my server:
An Activision contact told me a week or so ago about how Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 and 2 had demos/prototypes remade. They went around internally. I didn't share before as I wasnt sure if they were being remade as full games, or just a test— Sabi (@New_WabiSabi) November 24, 2019
This was also reported by freelancer Liam Robertson and has also been been confirmed by professional skateboarder Lizzie Armanto. She was appearing on The Nine Club podcast last month and during a discussion about Pro Skater 5 she was heard to say “he’s coming out with another one, and I’ll be in that too.”
The discussion has now been edited out of the podcast, a move that reinforces the claims that a new game is on the way. The Tony Hawk franchise, while incredibly popular, took a major hit when Pro Skater 5 launched as it was utterly terrible.
If the rumours are true then something has changed within the halls of Activision. Go back a few years and they were churning out a game almost every month, Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, Tony Hawk, Transformers, Spider-Man, but around the time the much underrated shooter Singularity came to market Activision had a change of heart and ruthlessly cut back on the number of games they released. They let all their licensed properties expire and almost shut down, relying on the annual Call of Duty game and Blizzard to generate revenue.
However, they took a gamble a couple of years ago and decided to bring back Crash Bandicoot with spectacular results and game selling millions of copies. The success of that title,and indeed their one other big release this year, Sekiro, may have persuaded Activision that they can produce console games other than Call of Duty.
However, there is the chance that these are remasters and not new games. Tony himself tweeted that fans should “ask Activision” about them.
To anyone asking me to 'remaster" old games, or complaining about THPS servers being down: Activision owns the THPS license but I am no longer working with them. If I had the skills / authority to reboot servers or code games for newer systems on my own, I would be happy to…
— Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) February 26, 2018
Activision confirmed that they were working on “releases of remastered versions of titles from our library of IP” back in February 2018 but even they were to remaster the games they would still need a new deal with Mr. Hawk as the previous agreement had expired.
Source: GamesRadar / Twitter