With the video game industry going through a nostalgia era, various companies have dug into their bag of long-dormant properties and are remastering, remaking, or reviving fan-beloved franchises. Games like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 were received very favorably and left fans hoping that Activision would continue the remaster trend and bring Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 to current-gen platforms. Unfortunately, due to Activision's decision-making and word from the skateboarding deity and game's namesake Tony Hawk, a remaster of the next two Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games will not be happening.
It came out yesterday that due to Vicarious Visions' merger with Activision Blizzard, further remasters of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater franchise were canceled. Tony Hawk had confirmed on stream that a remaster of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4 was up next, but Activision-Blizzard completed a deal that saw it absorb Vicarious Visions, causing all other projects to be scrapped.
This decision hurt Tony Hawk as he was enthusiastic about continuing to remaster some of the remaining games in the franchise. But after Activision Blizzard merged with Vicarious Visions, remastering of the remaining games was pitched to other developers. However, Activision, in Hawk's words, "didn't trust" the development of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater to anyone else, and the further talk of development ceased.
Fans of the series are obviously disappointed that the franchise will once again go dormant as Vicarious Visions were the driving force for remastering the franchise along with other games. The studio has a history of porting other Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games onto a variety of platforms and released the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy before putting out Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2. Fans mourned the news and questioned Activision-Blizzard's decision to not follow through on remastering Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 or Tony Hawk's Underground. With a fanbase that craves skateboarding games, many gamers see this as Activision throwing away another opportunity to cash in on the nostalgia craze.
One fan reaction even attempted to lobby Xbox Head Phil Spencer and Microsoft to step in and course-correct since Microsoft could soon have some control over Activision's development decisions. Others just choose to meme the presumed death of the franchise now that Activision has made Vicarious Visions into another support developer working on Call of Duty content. Fan fervor has swayed some development decisions in the past, so anything is possible. As of right now, skateboarding game fans will have to look to other games for their freestyle fix.