EA's Skate 4, now officially titled Skate, is going to be a free-to-play live-service game according to a video announcement by developer Full Circle. Full Circle intends for Skate to be a community-driven game with a world constantly evolving thanks to player creativity, and Full Circle believes that a fair free-to-play model is a natural evolution for the beloved skateboarding game franchise.
EA's Skate games were considered to be groundbreaking titles in their time, adding a previously unseen level of realism and depth of control to skateboarding games. Rather than relying on button press combinations like the classic Tony Hawk skateboarding games, Skate had a unique control scheme where the board was manipulated with the thumbsticks, a system that was praised by critics and fans for being immersive and skillful. Thanks to the game's video editor, Skate players had formed a culture of demo reel one-upmanship showcasing impressive skateboarding abilities not unlike real-life pro skaters.
After 12 years since the last entry, Skate 3, details regarding the new sequel are finally coming to light. Full Circle is a new studio formed specifically for the creation of the next Skate game and the team has been releasing videos and participating in interviews to discuss Skate. According to Isabelle Mocquard, head of product management on Skate, the game's business model will be based on cosmetic microtransactions that won't provide gameplay advantages or hide gameplay areas behind paywalls. Since customization is important to Skate players, this microtransaction system has the potential to be very successful for Full Circle.
Skate will include some interesting online features such as "CollaboZones," areas that players collaboratively build that can appear in other players' worlds. This will make certain areas slightly unpredictable as the environment will be subject to change, although Full Circle is aware that such a feature will require some moderation to police "sillier, lighthearted things" that may become disruptive. Full Circle is planning to implement some common live-service features such as seasonal drops and live events to keep the game interesting and is exploring other options as well.
Skate is shaping up to be a worthy successor to the long-dormant series thanks to its business model being "based on respect, trust, and transparency." Full Circle plans for the game to be very accessible thanks to crossplay, cross-progression, and a potential mobile version, combined with the free-to-play model this will allow players to access their characters on whatever device they happen to be using. So far, the transparent development process and early pre-alpha gameplay footage of Skate have shown that the game may be shaping up to be the sequel that fans have been waiting for.
Skate is currently in development.
Source: The Verge