Microsoft Pulls Its Own Game From Game Pass

"Editor's Note (7/13): We've removed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 from the list of titles coming soon to Game Pass."

That's the entirety of what Microsoft has said about yanking one of its own games from the July Game Pass lineup. No reason, no follow-up, no acknowledgement that this is a game Microsoft fully owns through its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The note was quietly appended to the Xbox Wire Game Pass announcement on July 13, two days before the game was supposed to arrive.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, the well-received 2020 remake developed by Vicarious Visions, was scheduled to join Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass on July 21. It's a game Microsoft publishes. It runs on Microsoft's platform. And yet here we are, with Microsoft pulling it from its own service and offering players absolutely nothing in the way of an explanation.

The leading theory is licensing. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 is packed with licensed music from the early 2000s and '90s, plus real-world skateboarding brands, all of which required separate deals. Nearly six years after launch, some of those agreements may have lapsed or need renegotiation before the game can be distributed through a subscription model. It's a plausible explanation, but it raises an obvious question: how did Microsoft announce the game for Game Pass without sorting this out first?

A Pattern Forming

This isn't happening in a vacuum. As reported by multiple outlets, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma previously pulled Call of Duty from Game Pass after stating the service was too expensive, a move that preceded a price reduction. Microsoft is in the middle of what it's calling a "reset" of the Xbox business, which saw 1,600 staff cut last week across four studios. Another 1,600 layoffs are expected over the rest of the financial year. The company has said it will now focus on its biggest franchises: Halo, The Elder Scrolls, and Fallout.

So is this a licensing hiccup, or is Microsoft rethinking which first-party titles belong on Game Pass at all? I'm not sure Microsoft knows the answer either, and that's what makes this so frustrating. If it's a rights issue, say so. If it's a strategic pivot, own it. Silently editing a blog post and hoping nobody notices is the kind of communication that erodes trust with a subscriber base that's already watching Xbox make painful cuts.

The irony is hard to miss. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 launched on Game Pass last year and was added to Game Pass Premium just last month. Microsoft is apparently fine putting the sequel on the service but not the original remakes. Meanwhile, another first-party title, Gears of War: Reloaded, was added to Game Pass on July 9 without issue.

The revised July Game Pass lineup still includes Quarantine Zone: The Last Check (available now), Mavrix by Matt Jones (July 16), FixForce (July 17), Fogpiercer on PC (July 17), and The Planet Crafter (July 21). Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 remains available for purchase on Xbox, just not through the subscription service Microsoft spent billions building around games exactly like this one.