Highlights
- Skate 4's trailer features Tim Robinson's M-Corp, hinting at an anti-corporate narrative.
- Skate 4 may follow Skate 2's anti-corporate stance, reflecting real-world corporate culture.
- A free-to-play Skate 4 could face challenges with microtransactions, but the game's premise remains promising.
Skate 4's cheeky Summer Games Fest trailer was one of the most pleasant surprises of the show. Starring I Think You Should Leave's Tim Robinson, the trailer is framed as an update from Skate 4's M-Corp, a bumbling corporation whose apparent incompetence has done little to get in the way of their abuse of power and corruption.
Tim Robinson is a fairly active skateboarder in real life, even being profiled by Thrasher Magazine last year.
In the trailer, Robinson, representing M-Corp, delivers a comedic monologue while other M-Corp employees are rushing about behind him, clearly in shambles and under duress. He laments the company's current public perception, expressing his distress that people are accusing M-Corp of "selling the city for scraps." He also announces a new holiday, Knob Day, which involves citizens attaching obstructive knobs to surfaces that may be grinded by skaters. The sketch ends with the lights of the M-Corp building shutting off unexpectedly. While the trailer may just be a humorous way to promote the game, it may also illuminate the narrative direction Skate 4 is taking.
Skate 4's Replay Editor Should Be Better than Ever
A newly filed patent from EA describes the Skate franchise's replay editor feature, which appears to be making a return in Skate 4.
Skate 4's Tim Robinson Trailer Points To a Promising Skate Story
Skate 4 May Reprise Skate 2's Anti-Corporate Stance
Skate 2 is often considered the best Skate game, and for good reason. The 2009 title, in addition to being remarkably well-tuned from a mechanical standpoint, seems to capture the cultural footprint of 2000s skating better than any other game in the series. Its story, while appropriately minimal and unobtrusive, centers on a grassroots rebellion against Mongocorp, a massive megacorporation that has bought up most of the property in San Vanelona and is ripping the soul from its disproportionately skateboarder-heavy community.
It's not exactly a stretch to say that M-Corp is probably a rebrand of Mongocorp. But a new name doesn't seem to mean a new philosophy, as M-Corp appears to be up to its old hijinks in San Vansterdam, Skate 4's setting—the announcement of Knob Day is evidence enough of that. It seems that M-Corp is selling San Vansterdam out, abandoning it after attaining a significant degree of power. It's difficult to pin down exactly what this means for the city's residents, but it seems clear that Skate 4 is wading in the same anti-corporate waters as Skate 2, which could lead to a number of relatable, engaging narrative ideas.
How Skate 4's Corporate Commentary Could Reflect Reality
While players shouldn't expect any groundbreaking social commentary from Skate 4, a fun, satisfying story about rejecting the status quo and standing up to authority is plausible. This loose ideological framework has the potential to form a consistently entertaining narrative, flooded with tongue-in-cheek references to real-world corporate culture. This is already apparent in the aforementioned trailer, as M-Corp's desperate ploy to seem 'cool' and down-to-earth is reminiscent of the countless PR campaigns one can observe in the real world, wherein corporate entities attempt to evoke parasocial emotions from the populace.
The quasi-casual attire of Tim Robinson's character, the overly familiar dialog, and the insistent claims about normalcy despite obvious chaos should all feel familiar to anyone who has seen a massive company facing troubled times. These parallels with real-world corporate shenanigans could make for some comedic verisimilitude in Skate 4, allowing the game to poke fun at the corporate world while critiquing it, likely through gameplay mechanics similar to Skate 2's skate stoppers and security guards.
Of course, Skate 4 being a free-to-play title coming from real-world megacorporation EA could hamper this commentary somewhat, especially if the final product includes controversial features like microtransactions. But a tyrannical company sucking the life out of a city has long been a successful narrative premise, and it's one that Skate 4 will likely pursue, regardless of real-world circumstances.
Skate 4
The upcoming fourth entry in the skateboarding series, officially now called skate., is an upcoming video game from Full Circle and Electronic Arts. For now, the game has been confirmed to be free-to-play.
