Rumors of a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Comeback Are Making Our Hearts Ollie

It's been quite a while since we had a new Tony Hawk Pro Skater game. The series has been left idle since the widely panned release of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 in 2015, resulting in a dearth of big skateboarding video games. But some new rumors have the internet abuzz about a potential return for the classic franchise.

On Saturday, established leaker Sabi tweeted that "demos/prototypes" of the first two Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games had been created and shared internally by series-owner Activision. Sabi was hesitant to share the information as the source at Activision behind the leak didn't specify if the work was targeted for a full release, or just for testing.

Ordinarily we'd treat this info as a secondhand rumor and leave it at that, but there seems to be some corroborating evidence for this rumor being real. Earlier today, As reported by GamesRadar+, a heretofore unnoticed podcast has surfaced in which professional skateboarder Lizzie Armanto references being featured in two Tony Hawk Pro Skater titles. Armanto was previously a featured skater in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5.

"He's coming out with, like, another one, and I'll be in that too," says Armanto at 2:00:47 on the Soundcloud copy of episode #168 of The Nine Club. On the YouTube version of the episode, Armanto's comment, as well as host Chris Roberts' ensuing riff on the subject, is edited out.

In early 2018, Tony Hawk stated that he was no longer working with Activision on Pro Skater titles but noted that the publisher still held the rights to the series:

USgamer has reached out to Activision for comment. We did not receive a response prior to publication, and will update this post if we hear back.

Leaks and unconfirmed information should always be taken with a grain of salt, but it's certainly true that lots of people would welcome a new Pro Skater title (provided it's not like 5). The Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series celebrated its 20th anniversary earlier this year—USG contributor Blake Hester compiled an industry retrospective for the occasion. Beyond Pro Skater, fans have also looked to EA's dormant Skate franchise and creā-ture Studios' early access title Session in hopes that we could see a new era of video game skateboarding greatness.