Skate 3 was released on April 19, 2010. It would take another 10 years before its sequel was finally announced. Unveiled at the 2020 EA Play showcase, the sequel, now just titled Skate, was stated to be extremely early-on in development, with not even a screenshot or concept art being shown during its announcement. Two years later, and it seems as though Skate is shaping up fairly nicely, with EA recently showing off some very rudimentary gameplay mechanics and animations. Skate is still very much in its early stages of development, but much to EA's surprise, a handful of eager, crafty fans have managed to get their hands on an early build of the game, and the leaks have started pouring in.
Leaks are now a pretty inevitable factor when developing a big-budget, highly anticipated game. Whether its screenshots accidentally sent to the wrong email address, release dates being posted by retailers a day early, or industry insiders using their many sources to find out tidbits of information, leaks are now a constant. But it's not every day that an entire build of the game gets leaked, so it is worth breaking down all the leaks for Skate thus far.
The Most Recent Skate Leaks
Over the last few weeks, predominantly since EA and developer Full Circle released the first real trailer for Skate, leaks have started cropping up online. First appearing on Reddit, as many leaks do, a handful of Skate's mechanics and its map were leaked in quite a bit of detail. Using an extremely early test build to evidence their claims, Reddit user Parzalai explained that Skate will give players more movement mechanics when not on their board, such as rolling and sliding around on the ground. Some of the game's skateboarding gameplay was also leaked here, as was the game's map, apparently called "Fun City."
According to the leak, Skate's Fun City will be one gigantic open-world, which keeps all of its districts and zones connected, unlike its predecessor which had smaller zones that had to be loaded in. Players will also be able to build throughout the city and create their own challenge zones, which gamers will then be able to try out, as Skate's open-world will be populated with other online players.
Just a few days after this initial leak, the early test build of Skate was leaked in its entirety online. Eager fans quickly rushed to download the test build, and those who did shared quite a bit of footage. While the build is certainly a very rough early draft, the actual skateboarding mechanics look just how fans would expect from the series, which has increased the hype around the game even further. According to those who have played the test build, gameplay feels slightly faster than Skate 3, and for the first time in the franchise, players can push forward by just tilting the analog sticks. Character customization is going to play quite a prominent role, and Skate will apparently have some form of in-game currency, though it's unclear yet just how important this will be in the experience.
Yesterday, Full Circle made an announcement regarding these leaks. In the announcement, Full Circle asked that fans remain patient, and warned against downloading the test build of the game. According to Full Circle, this test build was from all the way back in September 2021 and was never intended for external use. Meanwhile, EA has put on its deerstalker hat and has hunted down the person behind the leaks, banning their account and presumably seeking further legal action.
Skate is currently in development.
