Xbox has announced that, despite a previous update about upcoming games, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 will no longer be coming to Game Pass. A confusing move when the skateboard remake is published by Activision, a studio that Xbox, quite famously, owns.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 is not coming to Game Pass
A previous post detailing the next ten games coming to Game Pass included Pro Skater 1+2 along with Gears of War Reloaded, the two bigger games in the announcement, with the latter coming to cheaper Game Pass tiers. It has been available on Game Pass since its release last summer.
In an updated post shared on Xbox Wire, a note at the bottom of the article reads, “We've removed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 from the list of titles coming soon to Game Pass.” The game's cover has also been removed from the graphics showing what's coming to the service in the coming weeks, but no reason for Tony Hawk's removal has been given.
There have been rumblings that due to Game Pass' lack of growth, Xbox plans to pull back offers to bring more third-party games to the service. Court documents revealed that Xbox imagined Game Pass now had 77 million subscribers. In reality, it has less than half as much, with that number even appearing to have gone back, likely due to the price hike, which Xbox boss Matt Booty revealed led to millions of people ditching Game Pass.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 is technically a first-party game
The thing is, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 is not a third-party game. It's published by Activision, the studio Xbox bought in an industry-changing $70 billion deal in 2023. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 was released after the acquisition, which is why it's already on Game Pass. However, its predecessor was released in 2020, so isn't on Game Pass, and apparently won't be despite what Xbox previously promised.
Why Xbox would announce a game it owns the rights to is coming to Game Pass, only to later backtrack on that decision without an explanation, is anyone's guess. The Game Pass game plan has been shaken up several times already this year. Perhaps this is the first indicator that Xbox plans to make even more changes to a service that most people already find quite confusing.
That unnecessary confusion is one of the many reasons why Game Pass hasn't become the Netflix for gaming that Xbox wanted it to be.
One of the biggest changes to Game Pass this year was a price drop shortly after the steep price hike that caused players to unsubscribe in droves. The trade-off for that price cut was no new Call of Duty games on Game Pass day one. Perhaps, since it's also published by Activision, this Tony Hawk decision is related to it, in some way, although, beyond sharing a publisher, I'm unsure what that connection might be. Maybe we're about to get an Acti-Blizz Game Pass level.
- Released
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September 4, 2020
- ESRB
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e
- Developer
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Vicarious Visions
- Engine
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Unreal Engine 4
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
