More than 25 years after the first Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater put skateboarding games on the map, developers are still finding new ways to explore skating in video games, especially in 2025. Skateboarding fans are about to have some promising new games to play, with Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 remake releasing in July and EA is set to launch its online-only, free-to-play Skate revival this year.In 2022, my colleague Andrew Webster wrote that we’re in a golden age for skateboarding games, and things haven’t really slowed down. So what is it that makes skateboarding so good for video games, and allows so many different expressions of the sport from different studios?“I think skateboarding is one of those things that’s just always cool,” THPS 3 + 4 game director Kurt Tillmanns tells The Verge. “It’s an evergreen fantasy, in both real life and games. Being a skateboarder is a sign of what and who is cool.” He says “there’s a reason that we’re all in awe of what these people can do.” Part of what makes skateboarding cool is the music, fashion, and art, and video games let people experience that skateboarding culture, too, Tillmanns says.Also, “it’s safer,” jokes Andrew Schimmel, a senior producer at Snowman, the creators of the Skate City series. He says there’s a lot of people that would probably love to try skateboarding but don’t want to risk breaking a bone. “Being able to dive into a fantasy world where you can act that out and see the gnarly consequences and not have to suffer from them is like immediately appealing.”It helps that games take so many different approaches to skateboarding. “The skate community is so diverse, so it makes sense that there’s an appetite for all different types of games — some more realistic, some more arcade, some more casual,” says Skate executive producer Mike McCartney. For the new Skate, “it’s all about re-creating a skateboarding experience that reflects the freedom of exploration, discovery, and expression you see in ska