Tony Hawk Announces He’s No Longer Working With Activision
Photo by Zak Kaczmarek/Getty
The Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise has been dormant since the abysmal 2015 release Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5, and now the series’ namesake has all but confirmed its death. On Monday, legendary pro skateboarder Tony Hawk announced via Twitter that he is no longer working with Activision:
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
The THPS franchise helped cement skateboarding in the mainstream throughout the late ‘90s and into the new millennium, but the series never recovered from its peripheral-equipped misfire Tony Hawk: Ride. The original developer, Neversoft, shut its doors in 2014 and new developer Robomodo ruined any promise shown with its remake of the original THPS with the release of THPS 5. Robomodo ended up shutting down in 2016, just one year after THPS 5’s release.
While Activision maintains the license for the franchise, Hawk has hinted at working with other developers on a new skateboarding videogame. Nothing has been announced to date, but knowing that he has severed ties with Activision certainly lets fans of the groundbreaking series entertain the idea that there might be some more insane combos coming somewhere down the line.