It's amazing how people are still expecting 3rd party games for Wii U.

Thats the thing, you lump Tony Hawk with casual family games but the series likely had a more core audience.

Maybe a PC port will come. Sometimes they happen later.

Have you actually played PS3 games ported to Vita? It certainly takes more work then you've been lead to believe or we would see more.

I saw the name of this and checked my calendar to make sure I hadn't been in a coma and woken up on April Fools day 2016. Then I started looking at the poor graphics and reading things like "The game weds the series' finely tuned gameplay with new additions such as power-ups and the ability to shoot projectiles for specific missions."...what the hell have they been smoking over at Activision? It's a great idea to bring the series back, but damn it put some effort in.

These have to be some very early development pics, or just from the last gen version. I remember Skate not looking too bad on last gen, so I'd imagine a, 8th version would at least look decent

I have to ask. What is that sig from, and why does it put so much emphasis on her foot? lol

I don't think the "10 people thing" is a vicious cycle. Activision is one of the biggest publishers in the industry. There is no shortage of developers in the world. Porting an already-existing game to another platform doesn't take an outrageous amount of resources or supervision. Unlike tasking a small group of incompetent designers with making a manipulative and derivative mobile game, assigning them to a project that requires no knowledge of game design would result in a better product and goodwill with gamers. Nurturing a strong relationship with your audience is not a waste of resources, it's important and it's the reason third-parties like EA and Activision find themselves unable to sell games on Nintendo consoles. They treated the Wii and DS the way mobile platforms are often treated, and they have carried over those policies to the Wii U and 3DS. A decent Call of Duty port here and there does not erase the negative reputation they've spent years cultivating for themselves with so many awful licensed games and little else. They drove their reputation into the ground on Nintendo platforms the same way the drove Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero into the ground.

A cheap mobile game might make them a quick buck, but it will only be another step towards turning the mobile market against them unless they put some effort into making it a respectable experience. A cheap Wii U port would be an investment in their future on Nintendo platforms. Instead they choose to further embitter Nintendo gamers while exploiting the naiveté of mobile gamers. I don't care if that is a more immediately appealing financial decision, I don't think it will pay off in the long run and I don't respect it.

I lumped Tony Hawk with nothing. It is a completely different game from Guitar Hero, and both of those are completely different from Call of Duty. But I wonder what your explanation will be if and when Black Ops 3 is confirmed for release on Wii U.

I haven't played any PS3 -> Vita ports, but I assume they require less effort than a PS2 -> GBA port. Am I wrong?

Activision published THPS2 for the Dreamcast five months before it was discontinued, and THPS3 for the N64 after the GameCube had already been released. Maybe you've heard of how notoriously poor the N64's third-party support was even while it was active?

This is good because it confirms Skate 4.

Again, Tony Hawk games have had a core appeal much like CoD. While very different games it seems they appeal to a similar audience and will sell best on platforms with a large core audience.

Skylanders and Guitar Hero are differnt genres but have done well amongst casuals. And thats why Ninendo has continued to get that support.

Id be surprised if BO3 comes to Wii U given the shit sales of the last few and no AW port.

GBA didnt really get PS2 ports. GBA games with the same name as PS2 games exist, but they arent ports.

Vita ports of visually demanding PS3 games look kinda like 6th gen graphics. Vita's best looking games are at par with OG Xbox. I get the impression porting 7th gen titles is difficult as was porting 7th gen games to Wii. Sometimes PS2 ports fail to achieve a stable frame rate on Vita.

Can you give me any reason at all to believe this or am I just supposed to take you at your word? Mr Puggsly says COD and Tony Hawk have the same audience, so it must be true?

There is enough weirdness surrounding the rumored Wii U version of BO3 to see suspect that it might happen. Activision's silence regarding it is as baffling as it was for BO2 and Ghosts. I'm aware of the relationship between the PS2 and GBA versions of Tony Hawk games, my point was that Activision went to great lengths to make that game a strong IP on every possible platform 15 years ago, and now they seem content to settle for just a few platforms when they could be reaching a wider audience with far less effort than it took to make an entire game from the ground up.

I'd blame the developers if they can't get PS2 games to manage a stable framerate on the Vita. If Nintendo can get Wii games running on 3DS (or New 3DS), a competent studio should certainly be able to get a PS2 game to work on Vita. Anyway, comparing PS3 -> Vita ports to PS3/360 -> Wii was a mistake, because Activision did exactly that for Call of Duty and you just asserted that COD and Tony Hawk have the same fanbase. The Vita must be pretty much the definition of a core platform because the only Call of Duty game released for it is one of the best-selling games on the system despite being unanimously panned. That should indicate pretty well that Vita owners would buy THPS5 in droves even if it was an absolutely horrible port.

I didn't know CoD appealed to the core audiences.

Hate to break it to you, but that shit is even more casual than Cooking Mama.

Sorry for calling it shit, it sounded funnier that way.