Skate (stylised as “skate.”) the upcoming new entry to the Skate series, now has a launch window. And surprisingly, this EA game will be launch as an Early Access release.
Big-budget publishers don’t usually release Early Access games, but the game that could’ve been called Skate 4 is not an ordinary game. Developer Full Circle has had many, many playtest sessions with a select group of players under the Skate Insider program since 2022.
Skate will also be free-to-play. The game supports multiplayer in a way where you can see skaters just shredding around each block of San Vansterdam, pulling off kickflips and grinding on rails, giving it more of a community skatefest rather than just a campaign.
Being a live service game, expect Skate to be regularly updated with changes to the city, availble gear and customisation, story, even the game soundtrack.
The latter is fascinating given that this skateboarding game will likely featured licensed music, and to see the playlist adding and removing songs as the game continues to be updated will be something interesting to see.
The last entry to the Skate series was Skate 3, back in 2010. Unlike the Tony Hawk series, Skate’s approach to skateboarding was relatively more realistic. The analog stick-flicking required to flip the board requires an entirely different skillset to the button-mashing seen in the rival series, both equally bringing new fans to the hobby which was seen as a public nuisance and has now grown to become an Olympic sport.
In Skate’s absence, at least one game attempted to recapture that magic.
Will this new Skate game allows players to pull off Christ Airs to the tune of Pearl Jam’s Even Flow is a question yet to be answered.
Skate will launch into Early Access sometime in 2025.