Licensed Music In ‘Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD’ To Be Blamed For Game’s Retirement From Steam?

“Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD” will no longer be available on Steam starting next week. Find out why below.

Developer Robomodo and publisher Activision’s “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD” is getting removed from Valve’s digital distribution platform next Monday. The 2012 installment in Tony Hawk’s skateboarding video game series is said to be getting delisted from Steam for reasons that remain undisclosed as of this time.

Steam Announcement

On Monday, the makers of the game announced to the Steam online community that “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD” is getting discounted by 80 percent the entire week. Apparently, the big discount is not there for nothing. The developer seems to be very eager in luring more gamers to be interested in purchasing the game before it officially retires from the platform on Monday next week, July 17.

“Save 80 [percent] on ‘Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD’ as part of this week’s Weeklong Deal,” the developer wrote. “This is your last chance to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD” on Steam — the game will be retired from the store on July 17.”

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Reason Behind Retirement

According to Eurogamer, though the developer and the publisher of the game are not divulging the reason why the skateboarding game is getting delisted, it’s very possible that this has something to do with the licensed music in the game. The use of licensed songs unfortunately has an expiration date. The site noted that what’s happening to “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD” now could be the same thing that happened to “Alan Wake.” Remedy Entertainment’s action-adventure video game was removed from digital stores early this year after its licenses for its in-game music expired.

The video game features 20 songs all in all. Seven songs came from the “Tony Hawk 1” installment, while the other six are from “Tony Hawk 2.” The remaining seven tracks are said to be new in the franchise, as pointed out by Venture Beat.

Promotion Ahead Of Retirement

Since the game will be gone for good from Steam, gamers are being enticed to buy the game ahead of its retirement. The discounted game now costs $1.99 instead of its usual $9.99 price tag. Also, the DLC pack for the game now retails for $4.99, as per PC Gamer.

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“Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD” is not just available for the PC platform. It is also available on Xbox One and PlayStation. Interestingly, the console version of the game has been marked down as well. However, it wasn’t made known if the version for Xbox 360 and PS3 will be affected and be delisted just like what happened to the PC game, according to GameSpot.

Fan Reaction

It appears fans of the franchise are not affected by the fact that “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD” is getting removed from Steam for good. Most of them have even grabbed the chance to express their disappointment over the game after the announcement of its removal from the distribution platform.

“Unless they've vastly improved the mechanics, this game was awful at launch. Reverts and manuals had a hairline delay that was very noticeable to any seasoned players,” Reddit user DuckHuntDog1986 wrote in the thread discussing the game’s retirement. “Good riddance. Absolutely dreadful ... nostalgia-bait with inaccurate physics, awful controls, glitches ... (some of which directly hinder with the goals 100 [percent] of the time) and no redeeming qualities whatsoever,” Redditor sockpuppetkingdom commented.

Do you agree with what fans are saying about “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD”? Tell us in the comments below.