EA has announced that the next game in the skate. series is scheduled to drop into Early Access in 2025. This will be the first entry in the series since skate. 3 in 2010. Shortly after, EA laid off most of the developer’s staff and shut down the studio. Last we heard, Deran Chung and Chris Parry who worked on the original run of games, are part of the team handling the new skate.
I haven’t really been keeping up with the development of the new skate. (which is apparently just called skate.). I think I lost interest when it was announced that it would be free-to-play and multiplayer focused. Actually, repeating that still sticks in my craw since my wish for a new skate. game did not include GaaS.
If you’re down for that sort of thing, EA has been holding playtests since 2022 to collect player feedback. The developer has said that there will be no loot boxes, no maps locked behind paywalls, and no pay-to-win. So, that’s maybe comforting, but that still leaves cosmetics as microtransactions. We’ll have to wait and see.
I loved the skate. series. I love Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, as well, but they’re two completely different approaches to skateboarding. skate. feels a lot more authentic. You try and find the perfect line to build the most gnar gnar combo possible. The stick-flicking controls gave everything a more tactile feel.
But really, I have no interest in a live service multi-player game. Thankfully, I still have the original three games on PS3, so I can always turn to them. They’ve aged well.
skate. is coming to early access on 2025. More details to come.
Published: Sep 17, 2024 11:46 am