Skate 4 Announced With A Completely Revamped Way To Play The Game
Skate 4 has finally been announced, but EA has shocked the world by changing up the way the new sequel is going to be played for the foreseeable future.
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Yet another game has fallen to the GaaS (Games as a Service) approach, where developers make the game available for free but monetize it through other means in the long-term — usually through microtransactions. Full Circle, the developer of the upcoming and highly anticipated Skate 4, has announced that the game will become a free-to-play skateboarding simulation, available on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
Besides the appropriate face-lift, in terms of graphics and in-game physics, Skate 4 got its official name “skate.” as opposed to a numerated title since, as per a report published by IGN, it won’t be a sequel, a reboot, or a remake. Instead, the development team decided to make the game akin to a software platform that will be built upon for years to come — which could indicate the birth of yet another metaverse. This effectively means that fandom shouldn’t expect any further titles past skate. but a game that will continuously evolve for a very long time.
The fact that Skate 4 is turning into a free-to-play title isn’t all that surprising, considering Electronic Arts (rather aggressive) monetization tactics, which usually involve pay-to-win mechanics, pay-walls, loot-boxes, and other paid gameplay advantages. However, Full Circle stated that the team implemented hard ground rules when it comes to microtransactions, stating that the previously mentioned monetization tactics won’t be included in the upcoming skate.
Unfortunately, EA has a bad reputation for meddling with the development of their titles, which resulted in a rather long list of gaming titles that were ruined by the publisher. The third-person shooter Fuse and survival-horror Dead Space 3, both released in 2013, greatly suffered due to EA’s overbearing involvement in their development and attempts to make both titles “more marketable.” Hopefully, that won’t be the case with the upcoming skate. and EA won’t try to make the game into a pay-to-win — as they did with Need for Speed: No Limits.
With that said, the company began recruiting playtesters for the upcoming Skate 4 gaming title in June, and the development team discussed just how tough the decision to let the players see the game in its pre-pre-pre-alpha state was. However, Full Circle has committed to making a game appealing to the Skate franchise’s core fandom, and, getting feedback as early and as often as possible is a very good approach to achieving that goal.
The Skate 4 developer has also stated that they won’t be able to make the game available for everyone this summer, but there are plans for letting more playtesters into the skate. playground in the upcoming months. As per our previous report, the game was originally announced in the 2020 EA Play event, giving Skate fans something to look forward to, considering that the fandom had waited for a new game since the release of Skate 3 in 2010.
As things are right now, Skate 4 has no official release date, but Full Circle promised to let more players into playtests in the upcoming months, allowing gamers to directly influence the development of their highly-anticipated title.
