The Tony Hawk Series May Be On Hold, But PS5 Is Getting First-Person Skateboarding

The Tony Hawk skateboarding franchise might have gone out in a blaze of remastered glory back in 2020, but right now, a new challenger has hit the block and is kick-flipping from the usual third-person perspective of the genre to first-person.

VR Skater, which is technically an FPS game (first-person skateboarding) is headed to PS5 for the PlayStation VR 2 headset later this year. Developer Deficit Games is aiming to create arcade and simulation styles of gameplay, and to translate the sensation of street skating, the adaptive triggers will adjust tension when steering in-game. According to the studio in a PS Blog post, this will “give the sensation of resistance you’d feel in a skateboard’s trucks and bushing”s in real life.

The controls are being designed to replicate how tricks will be performed if you’re on an actual board, minus the risk of your face becoming intimately familiar with the concrete below you. You’ll swipe and scoop your hands with the Sense controllers to create the footwork needed for kick-flips and hard-flips, and grinding will require holding buttons to apply rotation and pressure to individual sides of the board.

While street skating is the main focus of VR Skater, you’ll be able to test out your skills on the Mega Ramp made famous by skateboarding legend Danny Way. It’s all downhill from here, but in a good way when you’re pretending to be a Superman on this ramp. Deficit Games is aiming to release VR Skater in Summer 2023.

Sony’s new PlayStation VR 2 headset has reportedly been off to a slow start since it launched in February. The hardware’s high price and lack of killer apps are also seen as barriers to entry, and analysts say that a price cut will be necessary if Sony wants to remain competitive against rivals like Meta.