Fans eagerly awaited fresh news of EA’s highly-anticipated new Skate game have been given their wish, but it mightn’t be quite what they were expecting. EA and developer Full Circle have shared a new 18-minute video, announcing, among other things, that their long-awaited skateboarding revival will be a free-to-play live-service game.
Despite having variously been known as both Skate 4 and a Skate reboot since its development was announced in 2020, Full Circle now says the game “isn’t a sequel, it’s not a remake, a reboot, [or] a prequel.” Instead, it’s described as an “authentic evolution” of the series – one whose last mainline entry arrived 12 years ago – that reflects “where skateboarding and gaming is in the real world”.
Full Circle also confirmed a final name in the form of “Skate.” (that fullstop is here to stay), and a new setting in San Vansterdam – described as a sister city to previous games’ San Vanelona.
Framing its free-to-play live-service announcement as a chance to “listen to [players] over the course of time, and put the features [they] want into it”, Full Circle says the plan is to keep updating the game for “years to come”, giving players something they can “regularly come back to and discover new things”.