Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Remaster Could Push a Skate Sequel
Tony Hawk games have been gone a long time, despite the success and legacy of the Pro Skater franchise. Many fans don't even count the most recent entry in the series, and for good reason. But with Summer Game Fest's announcement of a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 Remaster coming this year, it seems the franchise is back to tear up Warehouse 1 again. That just leaves one other skateboarding series to make a similarly triumphant return: Skate.
Speaking of franchises that have been gone a long time, the Skate franchise has been gone longer than Pro Skater at this point. That fact may be genuinely surprising to some, considering the series is less-than-half the age of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games. Despite Skate's short stint in the limelight, the game's were incredibly successful and helped revolutionize the modern popularity of skateboarding games. Similar to Pro Skater, the series has been on ice since 2010, but this remaster may be the push the franchise needs to return.
The interesting thing about Skate was that it was never living in the shadow of the Tony Hawk games, as the EA franchise was able to carve out its own popularity by striving for a more simulation-based skateboarding experience in a video game. Where Pro Skater, Underground, and several other Tony Hawk games depicted bombastic arcade-like skateboarding with simplistic controls, Skate innovated the genre of skateboarding games through a revolutionary control scheme and gameplay grounded in reality. For this reason, the franchises never really competed with one another because they were two unique experiences, and that was a good thing.
The "flick it" mechanics in Skate were innovative because the trick motions more closely resembled the motions real skateboarders would do when performing a trick. Skate's ensemble of tricks each required a different variation of analog stick motions, similar to special moves in fighting games. Partially due to the limited control scheme of the original PlayStation controller, Pro Skater utilized simpler movements and button combinations instead. That's not to say either was better/worse or limited, as both games leaned into their own distinct versions of skateboarding in a game. At the same time, the flick it mechanics made Skate's gameplay incredibly engaging and satisfying. Among other distinct modes and challenges throughout the game, Skate was solidified as one of the best skateboarding games of all time.
A new Skate game hasn't come out since 2010, though that was mostly because of genre fatigue. Skateboarding was simply becoming less popular in pop culture, which of course affected skateboarding games as well. Tony Hawk games similarly ended around that time with their last traditional entry in the franchise, Proving Ground, in 2007. The series did experiment with some peripheral-based skateboarding games and spin-offs, but they never amounted to similar success as the Pro Skater games. Of course, there was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 in 2015, but that game was rushed through development, and as a resul,t was a critically panned, commercial failure.
Skate, however, seemingly disappeared after Skate 3, with the game's multiplayer servers unceremoniously shutting down in 2016. For a while rumors and fan requests started pouring out in 2017 asking for "Skate 4," but EA CEO Andrew Wilson very quickly shut down any Skate 4 speculation. There's been little tidbits of information since then from various perspectives about the future of Skate.
Listings for "Skate 4" showed up at some online retailers, as well as a few alleged promotional images for "Skate 4" were leaked online. Eventually, Skate 3's multiplayer servers randomly came back online in 2018, while EA renewed the Skate trademark the year after. There was even a professional skateboarder who was approached by EA for a mobile Skate project, which he declined in the interest of working on a mainline Skate release instead.
For years, fans have been expressing their interest in a new Skate game with EA, to no avail. Comments on EA's Instagram pictures were mostly comprised of "Skate 4" requests and complaints. Even celebrity Tyler, the Creator put out a viral tweet in 2017 dreaming of another Skate game. Now in 2020, fans are showing a renewed interest in a Skate sequel, especially with the announcement of a Pro Skater remaster. It's also why Skate 4 was trending on Twitter recently. Fans just want more Skate. It's as simple as that.
There's a vested and vocal interest in the Skate franchise, and it's very likely EA is coming to realize this even if there's no game in development. Even games like Session, billed as a spiritual successor to Skate, are being independently developed because of the lack of a similar modern experience. With the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 Remastered Collection announcement being met with near universal praise, it's very possible this could be the catalyst for EA to consider a Skate sequel or even re-release. Considering the sheer amount of fans that have been hammering EA with requests and complaints about a lack of Skate in their lives, it's very possible.
We'll have to wait and see if EA even considers jumping back into the Skate series, but the publisher at least knows the interest is there. Hopefully, Pro Skater's glorious return will be enough to encourage a return of another great skateboarding game, with this vested entry continuing on for many years. With or without Skate 4, the future of skateboarding games may produce more games, and that's something EA would understandably want to be part of.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 will launch on September 4 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Skate 4 is not known to be in development.
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