The next Skate game is still only in Alpha Playtesting, but EA has already added microtransactions. Given the direction the reboot is taking, this had to come at some point. Unfortunately, I’d argue that that direction is the game’s whole problem.
We’re Living In Skate’s World
Look, I’m excited to see Skate come back. The series was never as important to me as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (and, even then, that’s a franchise I dipped in and out of), but I had a great time with the first game in the early PS3 days. Like Rock Band, Assassin’s Creed, and BioShock, EA’s skate sim is tied up in my memories of gaming in the late aughts.
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It would be an oversimplification to call Skate the Dark Souls of skateboarding games, but it was my introduction to a certain niche development ethos that has since become mainstream: that if you have to work really hard to accomplish something simple, pulling off anything remotely difficult will be euphoric.
In the 15 years the series has been absent, much of the gaming landscape has come around to Skate’s approach to design. One of this year’s breakout hits, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, takes a Skate-like approach to swordfighting, reimagining an action that’s usually straightforward and arcade-y into something demanding and skill-intensive.
Other skateboarding games, like Session and Skater XL, have built on Skate’s foundation more straightforwardly, serving up fiddly sims that make you think way too hard about what your thumbs are doing until the controls finally click.
There is fertile ground for a Skate return, but not like this. Though modern gaming has been shaped by Skate in positive ways, EA is attempting to make Skate embody the current gaming landscape’s most annoying trends.
Skate Should Be A Premium Release
This became clear in 2022, as developer Full Circle announced that the game would be free-to-play, embracing the long-term, live-service model. I was skeptical at the time that this was the right move and the last few years have made the prospect even dicier. Big triple-A forays into games-as-a-service territory have flopped, with Concord and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League among the highest-profile failures of the 2020s. This isn’t a space with much room for new titles, as players tend to find a favorite they can play with their friends and stick with it for years.
I also don’t see the Skate formula as being especially amenable to this kind of play to begin with. When I think about Skate, I think about spending long hours attempting to nail a trick. It’s a game that is fundamentally built around practice, not performance, so the idea of an experience centered on playing with friends seems strange.
Sure, it might capture the vibe of hanging out at the skate park and attempting to nail a trick while you shoot the sh*t with your buddies, but it also might just feel like you’re failing over and over while your friends watch. Games like Destiny, Fortnite, and Apex Legends are still handing out XP, skins, or weapons as you fail, and in Skate, at least as we know it, the only experience points that matter come from actually getting better at the game.
I’m increasingly frustrated that returning franchises that aren’t seen as having mega-game potential are relegated to free-to-play or mobile releases. Activision Blizzard is floating future mobile Guitar Hero and Crash Bandicoot games using AI-generated surveys. Harmonix revived Rock Band (albeit with the serial numbers filed off) in Fortnite. Skate is free-to-play.
These series can stand on their own as premium releases. New Skate or Guitar Hero or Rock Band games might not do Call of Duty numbers, but they could easily turn a profit. I’d much rather spend $60 or even $70 to play through a new Skate game than download a free-to-play iteration with no end in sight.
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